Ryan O’Connor
Ryan’s main area of research interest is in the foreign policy discourses of the United States. Specifically, he examines the interactions between multiple sites of production, the political elite, the media, and Hollywood films, to display how these interact with one another to (re)produce, sustain, and challenge a dominant foreign policy narrative. sites of production.
Aside from pursuing the research undertaken during his PhD, Ryan’s current research extends into three main areas. Specifically, he is in the process of developing an audience reception experiment to test the impact, if any, of Hollywood films on the perceptions of American foreign policy narratives.
Ryan has also begun to collaborate on a de-radicalisation project that seeks to analyse media framings for de-radicalisation programs and highlight the policy implications of these frames.
Finally, his interest in foreign policy and the role of state leaders in influencing international affairs has led Ryan to an exploration of the role of emotions in International Relations.
Publications:
Clubb, G., O’Connor, R., Koehler, D. and Schewe, J. The Importance of Public Relations in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. Policy Brief, The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 17 February 2022
This perspective critically examines some challenges posed to the rule of law and human rights by states’ use of data-driven learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) systems for identifying individuals presenting a threat to national security.
This perspective argues that despite the concern from researchers, policymakers, and the media about terrorist’s use of financial technologies, there is little empirical evidence of the adoption of widespread sophisticated financial plots.
This research paper retells the stories of an individual’s journey to join, dwell and fight for ISIS by examining Zafirr Golamaully’s series of blogs called ‘Dusty Feet’.