John O'Sullivan, CBE (born 25 April 1942) is a British conservative political commentator and journalist. From 1987 to 1988, he was a senior policy writer and speechwriter in

10 Downing Street 10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along w ...

for

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

when she was British prime minister and remained close to her up to her death. O'Sullivan served from 2008–2012 as vice-president and executive editor of

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

. He was editor of the Australian monthly magazine '' Quadrant'' from 2015 to 2017. Since 2017, he has been president of the Danube Institute, a

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; hu, Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán. It was formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young ...

government-financed think tank based in Budapest, Hungary, and also a member of the board of advisors for the , an NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world. A former editor of ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'' in the years 1988-1997, O'Sullivan has been an editor-at-large there since then."John O'Sullivan,"
''National Review Online''. Retrieved 2 February 2021.

Early life

Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, O'Sullivan was educated at St Mary's College,

Crosby Crosby may refer to: Places ;Canada *Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario *Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario ;England *Crosby, Cumbria *Crosby, Lincolnshire *Crosby, Merseyside ** Crosby (U ...

, and received his higher education at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. He stood unsuccessfully as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

candidate for the constituency of Gateshead West in the 1970 British general election. In 2014 he moved to

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

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

Journalism career

O'Sullivan is a former editor (1988–1997) and current editor-at-large of the opinion magazine ''

'' and a former senior fellow at the

Hudson Institute The Hudson Institute is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Co ...

. He had previously been the editor-in-chief of

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 2 ...

, editor-in-chief of the international affairs magazine, ''

The National Interest ''The National Interest'' (''TNI'') is an American bimonthly international relations magazine edited by American journalist Jacob Heilbrunn and published by the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank based in Washington, ...

'', and a special adviser to British prime minister

. He was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in the 1991 New Year's Honours List. In 1998 O'Sullivan was a leading member of the journalistic team that founded the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', a right-leaning national newspaper in Canada. O'Sullivan is the founder and co-chairman of the New Atlantic Initiative, an international organisation dedicated to reinvigorating and expanding the Atlantic community of democracies. The organisation was created at the Congress of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in May 1996 by

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

and

. In 2013, O'Sullivan became first the director and then president of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based think tank, for which he is paid an annual salary of 150,000 Euros, indirectly financed by the Hungarian government. The Danube Institute exists to provide an centre of intellectual debate for conservatives and classical liberals and their democratic opponents in Central Europe. Based in Budapest and Washington, D. C., it seeks to engage with centre-right institutions, scholars, political parties and individuals of achievement across the region to discuss problems of mutual interest. Concurrently, in February 2015 O'Sullivan also became the editor of the Australian monthly magazine '' Quadrant''. In January 2017 he stepped down as editor and become the international editor. O'Sullivan has published articles in ''

Encounter Encounter or Encounters may refer to: Film *''Encounter'', a 1997 Indian film by Nimmala Shankar * ''Encounter'' (2013 film), a Bengali film * ''Encounter'' (2018 film), an American sci-fi film * ''Encounter'' (2021 film), a British sci-fi film * ...

'', '' Commentary'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', '' Policy Review'', ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', '' The American Spectator'', ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'', ''

The American Conservative ''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has ...

'', '' Quadrant'', ''

The Hibernian ''The Hibernian'' was a monthly Irish magazine with the subtitle "Faith, Family and Country". Twenty-nine issues were published between May 2006 and September 2008. It was launched in May 2006, by Gerry McGeough, formerly a member of the Sinn ...

'', the ''Hungarian Review'' and other journals, and is the author of ''The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister'' (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2006). Philosopher

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views. Editor from 1982 ...

praises O'Sullivan's book, which "forcefully" argues "that the simultaneous presence in the highest offices of

Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

, Thatcher and

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

was the cause of the Soviet collapse. And my own experience confirms this." He also lectures on British and American politics and is the Bruges Group's representative in Washington DC.

Views

O'Sullivan's first law

He is known for O'Sullivan's first law, or O'Sullivan's law, stating: "All organizations that are not explicitly right-wing will over time become left-wing."

Multiculturalism

In an article, O'Sullivan wrote: "After all, radical

Islamists Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is c ...

have three advantages on their side: demography (the populations of Islamic nations are increasing while the West suffers a 'birth dearth'); rapidly growing Islamic diasporas in the West, fueled by illegal immigration; and official Western policies of multiculturalism (which not only encourage immigrants to retain their original cultural identity but even promote the 'de-assimilation' of previously assimilated minorities in the West)...the decline of Christian belief and social influence; and the habit of respecting other cultures as unities while treating the West as a kind of multi-cultural supermarket in which Western civilization is merely one rather dusty shelf. To these trends politicians add appeasement, both diplomatic (of neighboring North Africa) and electoral (of local Muslim constituencies)". On July 18, 2005, O'Sullivan wrote an article titled, "The Islamic Republic of Holland. How One Nation Deals with a Revolutionary Problem". In a 2017 review, O'Sullivan says "The new policy ncouraging migrationaccelerated the transformation of Britain into a multicultural society with racial and religious tensions; terrorist murders, bombings, and beheadings; physical attacks on gays in East London; the extraordinary epidemic of the rape and sexual grooming of underage girls...hostile demonstrations against British soldiers returning from Afghanistan; an estimated (by the British Medical Association) 74,000 cases of female genital mutilation by 2006; the occasional honor killing; and excellent restaurants".

Private life

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

Bibliography

Books

* *

Essays and reporting

"Cultural Revolutions Then and Now"
''Hungarian Review'', Vol. 11, No. 4, 13 July 2020. * "Foreword: Making Democracy Irrelevant", in: Mark Sidwell,
The Long March: How the Left Won the Culture War and What to Do About It
', London: New Culture Forum, 2020. * * Mugabe and Zimbabwe.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Osullivan, John 1942 births English columnists English political commentators Living people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of the University of London People educated at St Mary's College, Crosby Speechwriters English male non-fiction writers Quadrant (magazine) people British social commentators Hudson Institute Conservative Party (UK) people Politicians from Liverpool Conservatism in the United Kingdom