Assorted Materials: Johnny Ryan

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnnyryan1

Interests:

The political impact of the Internet; digital competitiveness; Islamist militancy in Europe; and EU justice & home affairs policy.

PRESENT ACTIVITIES:

• Project Manager, European Biometric Forum
• Senior Researcher on the Digital Future, Institute of International and European Affairs
  
• Under contract to write new book on politics and the Internet for Reaktion Press

PRESENT VOLUNTARY POSITIONS:

• European Security Research and Innovation Forum’s (ESRIF) working groups 2 (critical infrastructure) and 11 (human & societal dynamics)
• Adviser and Web 2.0 campaign designer for Senator Eugene Regan
• Selection Committee for Irish postgraduate applicants to the College of Europe, 2007
• Peer-Reviewer, EuroMesCo (Euro-Mediterranean Study Commission)

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:

• Senior Researcher, Institute of International & European Affairs, 04/2007-03/2008
  I led programmes on i) counter terror & security; ii) justice & home affairs policy; and iii) digital policy. This included publishing reports, networking contacts, organising high-level seminars & conferences, and attracting high-profile guest speakers. I worked closely with the Institute’s members, including former Heads of Government, Secretaries General, Ministers, and with stakeholders such as European Commission DGs, security agencies, industry leaders, government departments, the media, and the judiciary.
• Researcher, Institute of International & European Affairs, 08/2005 - 05/2007
• Project Coordinator, Digital Publishing Innovations Ltd., 12/2003 - 04/2004
• Tutor, University College Dublin School of History, 09/2002-04/2004
• Editor, The History Review, 09/2002 - 04/2003

Book:
Countering Militant Islamist Radicalisation on the Internet: A User Driven Strategy to Recover the Web
(2007), 166 pp, hardback ISBN: 1-874-109-86-9

Currently writing The Internet: a short history (working title), under contract with Reaction Books, London

Publications & papers:

• (with Joseph Curtin), “The Lisbon treaty and the Irish voter: democratic deficits”, OpenDemocracy, 16 June 2008
• “Norms on the Net: Governing the Internet and the perils of failure”, NthPosition online magazine, 21/5/2008
• “iWar: pirates, states and the internet”, OpenDemocracy, 06/2/2008
• “iWar: A new threat, its convenience, and our increasing vulnerability”, NATO Review, Winter 2007
• “Ideas at war: militant Islamist rhetoric”, Journal of Information Warfare, vol 6, issue 3.
• “Islamist militants’ calls to violence: four P-words (Persecution, Precedent, Piety and Perseverance) in common with Irish Republicanism”, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, vol. 30, issue 11, November 2007
• “iWar”, Technology, Commerce, Society Daily TCSDaily, 13 August 2007 [link]
• “Web filtering is flawed terror response”, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief Services, 10 August 2007
• “Countering militant radicalisation on the Internet”, RUSI/Jane’s Defence Homeland Security & Resilience Monitor, 8 August 2007 [link]
• “The militant Islamist call and its echo”, OpenDemocracy, 1 August 2007 [link]
• “EU should take its anti-terrorism fight to the Internet”, Europe’s World policy dossier on security and defence (Summer, issue 6, 2007) [link]
• “Ireland’s Presidency of the UN Security Council during the siege of Beirut”, History Review, xiv, 2003
• “Foreign and Commonwealth Office dilemmas: principled failure in Rhodesia, 1971-72”, paper presented at the Royal Irish Academy, 2003

Selected presentations:

• Speaker: “A strategy against online radicalisation: Respect the medium - challenge the message”, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, 21 July 2008
• Speaker: “Internet governance - why openness is security!”, Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Counter Terror Conference, Geneva, 28-29 April 2008
• Speaker: Police Service of Northern Ireland C3 Special Branch Conference, Belfast, 39 March-1 April 2008
• Speaker: “The Internet: empowering end users to seize the new high ground”, Pluscarden Conference, St. Anthony’s, Oxford, 14-15 March 2008
• Keynote speaker: OSCE Action Against Terrorism Unit Seminar on Incitement to Terror, Vienna, November 2007 Remarks at the 15-16 November 2007 OSCE Experts Workshop on violent radicalisation on the Internet
• Participant: Netherlands’ Counter terrorism Coordinator’s Conference, the Hague, October 2007
• Irish Government’s National Expert: Euromed conference on “preventing incitement to terrorism and radicalisation: what role for the media?”, 21 May 2007
• Lecture: “Key issues in European Union external relations”, the European Commission Representation in Ireland, December 2006
• Guest chair: “Identity: Ireland within Europe”, Trinity College Dublin Historical Society, October 2006
• Speaker: “The new justice & home affairs policy architecture”, Law Society Conference, University of Cork, December 2005
• Oral Brief: “Themes of Islamist militant internet discussion”, Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, 2005

Media:
Interview/expert contribution experience: Reuters, Associated Press, Irish Times, Irish Independent, The Times, BBC World News Service, BBC Radio Five Live, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, NewsTalk, Today FM, ENN, RTE PrimeTime, Silicon Republic.

Education:
PhD Candidate, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge (currently)
MPhil, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
BA and MA, University College Dublin

Awards:

• Beneficiary: O’Reilly Foundation Scholarship, 2008-10 (value €50,480)
• Beneficiary: Cambridge European Trusts Honorary Fellow, 2008-2010.
• Lead applicant on behalf of IIEA Director General: Support funding from European Commission DG Information, 2007-08 (value €97,733.05)
• Beneficiary: Cambridge European Trusts part cost bursary, 2004-05 (value £4,000 Sterling)
• SMedia Awards (Ireland’s national student media awards):
  Features Writer of the Year 2003, Features Writer of the Year 2002, Editor of the Publication of the Year 2002