John O'Sullivan (columnist)

John O'Sullivan, Prague

John O'Sullivan, CBE (born April 25, 1942) is a British conservative political commentator and journalist and currently vice president and executive editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.^[1][2] During the 1980s, he was a senior policywriter and speechwriter in 10 Downing Street for Margaret Thatcher when she was British prime minister and remained close to her up to her death.^[3][4] He is also a member of the board of advisors for the Global Panel Foundation, a respected NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world.^[5]

Early life

Born in Liverpool, he was educated at St Mary's College, Crosby, and received his higher education at the University of London. He stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate for the constituency of Gateshead West in the 1970 British general election.^[6]

John O'Sullivan – Director of Danube Institute, Budapest

In 2014 he moved to Budapest, to set up Danube Institute. He is the Director of 21st Century Initiatives and Senior Fellow at the National Review Institute in Washington, D.C..

Journalism career

the National Review and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He had previously been the editor-in-chief of United Press International, editor-in-chief of the international affairs magazine, The National Interest, and a special adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.^[7] He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1991 New Year's Honours List.

John O'Sullivan, Mark André Goodfriend – 2015

He is the founder and co-chairman of the New Atlantic Initiative, an international organization dedicated to reinvigorating and expanding the Atlantic community of democracies. The organization was created at the Congress of Prague in May 1996 by Václav Havel and Margaret Thatcher.

In February 2015 he became the editor of the Australian monthly magazine Quadrant.^[8]

Published works

O'Sullivan has published articles in Encounter, Commentary, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Policy Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The American Spectator, The Spectator, The American Conservative, Quadrant, The Hibernian and other journals, and is the author of The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2006).^[9][10] Philosopher Roger Scruton praises O'Sullivan's book, which "forcefully" argues "that the simultaneous presence in the highest offices of Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II was the cause of the Soviet collapse. And my own experience confirms this."^[11] He also lectures on British and American politics and is the Bruges Group's representative in Washington DC.

"O'Sullivan's First Law"

He is known for "O'Sullivan's First Law" (O'Sullivan's Law): "All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing."^[12]

Private life

O'Sullivan currently resides in Prague with his wife Melissa.

References

1. "RFE/RL Announces Senior Appointments," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, January 16, 2008.
2. Todd Beamon and John Bachman, "Mass Firings at Radio Liberty Help Putin; Hurt Press Freedom," Newsmax, January 24, 2013.
3. John O'Sullivan, "She Kicked up and Kissed Down," The Globe and Mail, April 9, 2013.
4. John O'Sullivan, "The Two Sides of Margaret Thatcher," The Telegraph, April 13, 2013.
6. http://mandiner.hu/cikk/20140205_john_o_sullivan_europat_szabadabb_hellye_kell_tenni?utm_source=mandiner&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mandiner_201402
7. "Former Thatcher Confidant John O'Sullivan On Her Life And Legacy," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, April 9, 2013.
8. Keith Windschuttle, (12 February 2015), Quadrant’s New Editor, Quadrant
9. Mark Steyn, "When Leaders Showed Courage", Maclean's, January 29, 2007.
10. John O'Sullivan, "The Rise of an Iron Lady," Human Events, 2013.
11. Scruton, Roger (2014). How to Be a Conservative. New York: Bloomsbury. p. 9.
12. John O’Sullivan, "O’Sullivan’s First Law", National Review, October 27, 1989.

Book

• The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World, Regnery Publishing, November 25, 2006. ISBN 1-59698-016-8

External links

• Works by John O'Sullivan, at Unz.org
• O'Sullivan articles, at National Review.
• O'Sullivan articles, at The National Interest
• O'Sullivan articles, at The Spectator.
• O'Sullivan articles, at The American Spectator.
• O'Sullivan articles, at The Weekly Standard.
• O'Sullivan articles, at The American Conservative.
• O'Sullivan articles, at The Claremont Institute.
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• O'Sullivan articles, at Hungarian Review
• John O'Sullivan in Prague on YouTube, speaking on his book The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister (8-11-2007)
• John O'Sullivan interview on YouTube, discussing the career of Margaret Thatcher on Uncommon Knowledge.
• "The Good Doctor? The Case of Henry Kissinger", debate between O'Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens over whether former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger's foreign policy involved war crimes.
• "Life and Political Thought of James Burnham" (14 November 2014), a panel discussion at a conference on Burnham's Suicide of the West, hosted by Yale University in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the book's publication.
• John O'Sullivan: "Orban's Hungary: Image and Reality" from Hungarian Review, September 2014