Disinformation, Misinformation, Malinformation: A Propagandist's Perspective

Stephen Jolly will explain what makes propagandists tick, the history of disinformation and the challenges of countering it. Professor Jolly will also explore the history of propaganda and the genesis of disinformation.

Guest Speaker: Stephen Jolly

Stephen is the UK’s former Director of Defence Communications and was a founder chair of Whitehall’s National Security Communications Committee, NSCC. His remit included the stratcom component of military strategic effects, psychological operations, psyops, information operations, media operations as well as public relations and marketing. He oversaw more than 1100 civilian and military staff across 10 organisations, including the Armed Forces.

From 2013, Stephen led the most radical reform of British Defence communications since the Falklands War.  He introduced a new model of governance and pioneered a full spectrum approach to communications dubbed the “Rainbow in the Dark” doctrine by defence commentators. He also designed the template for British military information operations of the future.

A certified psyops planner, Stephen is a former instructor at the UK Defence Intelligence & Security School, Chicksands (1996-1999); a former Visiting Fellow in Psychological Warfare, International Centre for Security, Dept of War Studies, King’s College, London (1999-2002); founder member of the Black & White Club, the regimental association for UK psyops veterans. He has held numerous think tank and academic fellowships, including a Senior Research Fellowship RAND Corporation (2016-2020) and an Adjunct Professorship in Geopolitics at a leading French business school (2021-2).

Stephen has been a Fellow Commoner of St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge since 2017. He also formerly served as Honorary Captain of the Light Blue Volunteers, the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps. Up until 2020, he served as the British Army’s Head of Political Warfare and is a member of the elite Special Forces Club.

An historian of British psychological operations, Stephen’s publications include: "Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Reassessment of British Black Propaganda Operations 1941-1945", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 171, 148-156; 172, 23-37 (2001); "From SOB to I/OPs: The Unwritten History of British Black Propaganda, 1947-97", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 171, 130-134 (2001);  "The Mardin Essay: Psychological Warfare and Public Relations", Frontline: The Global Public Relations Quarterly, 22 (4), 22-30 (2000); "Wearing the Stag's Head Badge: British Combat Propaganda since 1945", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 170, 86-89 (2000); "Morale Operations: The Cinderella of Covert Propaganda Operations?", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 170, 114-116 (2000); "Delmer's Maxims of Subversion: British Black Propaganda Techniques in WW2", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 169, 64-70 (2000). He has also written about interrogation in "Crimes of Coercive Persuasion: Rectification under the Khmer Rouge", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 173, 52-55 (2001).  

Before entering Government, Stephen spent almost thirty years in corporate communications, holding senior roles with global brands such as the University of Cambridge, M&C Saatchi, HSBC, Nomura, Clearstream, PwC. He is currently based in Oslo where he works as a Senior Adviser with management consultancy Reputation Inc.

Moderator: Professor Weinstein

Professor Weinstein's areas of academic interest are Constitutional Law, especially Free Speech, as well as Jurisprudence and Legal History. He is co-editor of Extreme Speech and Democracy (Oxford University Press 2009, paperback edition 2010); the author of "Hate Speech, Pornography and the Radical Attack on Free Speech Doctrine" (Westview Press 1999); and has written numerous articles in law review symposia on a variety of free speech topics, including: free speech theory, obscenity doctrine, institutional review boards, commercial speech, database protection, campaign finance reform, the relationship between free speech and constitutional rights, hate crimes, and campus speech codes. Professor Weinstein has litigated several significant free speech cases, primarily on behalf of Arizona Civil Liberties Union. Earlier in his career, he wrote several influential articles on the history of personal jurisdiction and its implication for modern doctrine. Professor Weinstein also has been a principal speaker at numerous national and international conferences on free speech issues.

During law school, he was a member of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review Board of Officers. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to James R. Browning, Chief Judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and then practiced civil litigation in Los Angeles for several years before joining the faculty in 1986.