Ben O'Loughlin

Ben O’Loughlin is Professor of International Relations and Director of the New Political Communication Unit at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is co-editor of the Sage quarterly journal Media, War & Conflict. His latest book is Forging the World: Strategic Narratives and International Relations (2017, University of Michigan Press). He was Specialist Advisor to the UK Parliament’s Select Committee on Soft Power, producing the report Power and Persuasion in the Modern World. In 2016 Ben and his colleagues won the Walter Lippmann Award for Political Communication at the American Political Science Association (APSA). From 2016-19 he carried out studies on culture, conflict and influence for the British Council, Goethe Institute and European Commission. In 2019 he is Thinker in Residence at the Flemish Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences working on Disinformation and Democracy. 

Post Archive

23 October 2017
It is clear by now that the Russian state has for a decade offered a double representation of Russian identity. It seeks an “objective” portrayal of the “real” Russia while…
27 September 2017
A new study shows that Asian elites view the EU as important partner but do not ‘buy in’ to the EU’s own narrative that Europe is a peaceful continent whose ability to overcome…
12 September 2017
Despite fears a war of words on Twitter could trigger nuclear annihilation, a brief look at nuclear policy and social media shows Twitter can be used to reinforce strategic…
19 May 2017
The idea has taken hold that Russia and the West are locked into a new period of information warfare, a new Cold War, that each side must do its best to win. Victory for Russia…
07 December 2015
What are the political conditions that will allow the end of conflict in Syria? The situation within Syria is one of stalemate and mutual exhaustion, while signs of ‘Syria fatigue…
09 August 2015
The idea has taken hold that Russia and the West are locked into a new period of information warfare, a new Cold War, that each side must do its best to win. Victory for Russia…
09 January 2015
In the past two decades we have passed through three phases of media ecology, and each has shaped a different way media have entered into the operations and understandings of war…
21 September 2014
Incredulity doesn’t kill curiosity; it encourages it. Though distrustful of logical chains of ideas, I loved the polyphony of ideas. As long as you don’t believe in them, the…
20 April 2013
While the US pivot to Asia under the Obama administration has gathered much attention, a number of conflicts around the world can be seen as ‘pivots’ in which the world tilts…
30 May 2012
Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter’s talk in Parliament in London this week offered useful insights into how the Obama administration and foreign policy analysts around it are…