About

Professor Geoffrey Robinson is a Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Department of History. His research and teaching focus on political violence, genocide, human rights, and US foreign policy, primarily in Southeast Asia. He earned his BA at McGill University and his PhD at Cornell University, where he studied under Benedict Anderson and George Kahin. Before joining UCLA, he worked for six years at Amnesty International’s Research Department in London and served as a Political Affairs Officer with the United Nations in East Timor in 1999. His major works include 'The Dark Side of Paradise: Political Violence in Bali,' 'East Timor 1999: Crimes against Humanity,' 'If You Leave Us Here, We Will Die: How Genocide Was Stopped in East Timor,' and 'The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66.' His current projects involve a co-authored visual history of the mass violence in Indonesia during 1965-66 and a study of the 'Swedish Connection' to that violence. His scholarship extensively covers issues of political violence, genocide, and human rights in Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis on Indonesia and East Timor.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Combinatorics
• Sociology
• Physics
• Political Science
• Mathematics
• Discrete mathematics
• Economics
• Law
• Art
• Political economy
• Public administration

Selected publications

• A Sceptical Liberal? The Australian Georges Sorel

  Deakin Research Online (Deakin University) · 2026-01-01

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A Sceptical Liberal? The Australian Georges Sorel

  PublisherDOI

• Liberal conservatism as the mind of the master class

  2025-05-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Liberalism in the house of government

  2025-05-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• David Kemp and Gregory Melleuish

  2025-05-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Liberalism as a Way of Political Life: The Case of George Brandis

  Australian Journal of Politics & History · 2025-09-29

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The lawyer, politician, and diplomat George Brandis was the leading intellectual representative of moderate or “small‐l” liberalism in the contemporary Liberal Party. He criticised John Howard for an ad hoc balancing of liberalism and conservatism. Brandis believed the Liberal Party necessarily included conservatives, but to him their role was to be a modest break on liberal progress rather than the advocates of a coherent alternative to liberalism. This article examines Brandis' political thought and practice and considers how his understandings of freedom, order, and progress changed in his journey from party activist to a Cabinet minister responsible for anti‐terrorism, judicial appointments, and discrimination law.

  PublisherDOI

• The Liberal Mind in a Conservative Party

  2025-05-09

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Robinson analyses the peculiarly Australian intellectual tradition of liberal conservatism within the mainstream centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Conservative intellectuals in Australia have forged a pragmatic, sceptical and utilitarian liberal conservatism focused on the tasks of government. It remains distant both from the romantic and organicist ideas of the populist right and the simplicities of libertarianism. Focusing on key figures within this tradition, Robinson tracks the progress of Australian liberal conservatism over the years through its origins in the work of David Hume to the thoughts of Peter Coleman, David Kemp and Andrew Norton before moving forward to George Brandis and Gregory Melleuish. The Liberal Party of Australia has appealed successfully to the conservative sentiments of voters in a liberal society. The Liberal Mind in a Conservative Party tells the story of seven intellectuals who helped make this possible. Peter Coleman drew on John Anderson, Georges Sorel and Michael Oakeshott to champion neoconservatism. He argues that this potent political ideology has shaped a distinct political identity, which rejects conservative traditionalism, and libertarian economics, while defending a pragmatic approach to capitalism. A fascinating read for students and scholars of Australian politics, this book will also be of great value to readers with an interest in international centre-right politics.

  PublisherDOI

• The loneliness of the Liberal feminist

  2025-05-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Half a Century of Genocide and Extermination

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2023-05-04 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter examines comparatively three instances of extreme political violence in Indonesia and Indonesian-occupied territory over more than fifty years: the mass killing of roughly half a million communists and leftists in 1965–6; the unnatural death or killing of at least 100,000 people in East Timor from 1975 to 1999; and the systematic physical and cultural decimation of the indigenous population of West Papua from 1963 to 2020. It describes the unique dimensions of each case – including key patterns and variations in the violence, the historical and political conditions that gave rise to it, the identities of the perpetrators and victims, and differences in the degree and nature of resistance. At the same time, it highlights the remarkable similarities and continuities across the three cases. It argues that, despite their differences, these three cases form part of a single broad pattern of extermination and genocide perpetrated by the Indonesian state, driven by competition over valuable resources and facilitated by the acts and omissions of powerful foreign actors.

  PublisherDOI

• When it comes to Indigenous affairs, Australian voters’ opinions are complicated

  2023-10-12

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Bounding the order of complex linear groups and permutation groups with selected composition factors

  2023 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics
  • Artificial Intelligence

  Originally motivated by questions of P. Etingof (related to growth rates of tensor powers in symmetric tensor categories, see K. Coulembier, P. Etingof, and V. Ostrik [ <italic>Asymptotic properties of tensor powers in symmetric tensor categories</italic> , arXiv:2301.09804, 2023]), we obtain (as usual, modulo Abelian normal subgroups) general bounds of exponential nature on the order of finite subgroups <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper G"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">G</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> of <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper G upper L left-parenthesis n comma double-struck upper C right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>GL</mml:mi> <mml:mo> ⁡ </mml:mo> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">C</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\operatorname {GL}(n,\mathbb {C})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> with prescribed properties. Our most general result of this nature is: \theorem* Let <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="bold upper P"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="bold">P</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathbf {P}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> be a property of (isomorphism types of) finite groups which is inherited both by subgroups, and by homomorphic images. Then one and only one of the following is true: Every finite group has property <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="bold upper P"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="bold">P</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathbf {P}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> . There is a real number <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="c left-parenthesis bold upper P right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="bold">P</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">c(\mathbf {P})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> such that whenever <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="n"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">n</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> is a positive integer and <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper G"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">G</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> is a finite subgroup of <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper G upper L left-parenthesis n comma double-struck upper C right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>GL</mml:mi> <mml:mo> ⁡ </mml:mo> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">C</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\operatorname {GL}(n,\mathbb {C})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> which has property <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="bold upper P"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="bold">P</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathbf {P}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> , then <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper G"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">G</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> has an Abelian normal subgroup <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper A"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">A</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> with <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="left-bracket upper G colon upper A right-bracket less-than-or-equal-to c left-parenthesis bold upper P right-parenthesis Superscript n minus 1"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">[</mml:mo> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:mo>:</mml:mo> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">]</mml:mo> <mml:mo> ≤ </mml:mo> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="bold">P</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo> − </mml:mo>

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lisa Hay

  Deakin University

  9 shared

• Jan van der Putten

  4 shared

• Liaw Yock Fang

  4 shared

• Gerry van Klinken

  3 shared

• E.P. Wieringa

  2 shared

• Martijn Eickhoff

  NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

  2 shared

• Henk Schulte Nordholt

  2 shared

• Stephen Headley

  2 shared

Labs

• UCLA Luskin Center for History and PolicyPI

Education

• B.A.

  McGill

• Ph.D.

  Cornell

Awards & honors

• Society for Military History, Distinguished Book Award 2020
• Raphael Lemkin Book Award, the Institute for the Study of Ge…
• Isaac Manasseh Meyer Fellowship Award, National University o…
• UC Pacific Rim Research Program, Faculty Initiative Grant 20…
• British Library Endangered Archives Programme, Major Researc…