The concept 'strategic narrative' has been developed by O'Loughlin with colleagues Alister Miskimmon at Royal Holloway, Andreas Antoniades (Sussex) and Laura Roselle at Elon University.
Strategic narratives refer to how political agents tell stories about international affairs in order to influence the behaviour of states and non-state actors.
From 2015 to 2018 he was funded by the Jean Monnet and the British Council to research the impact of culture and narratives on conflicts in Ukraine, Egypt and Israel-Palestine.
[7] In 2016 he also conducted research with Marie Gillespie for the British Council evaluating how global audiences engage with the #ShakespeareLives campaign to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth.
In 2010 he completed a project for the UK Technology Strategy Board exploring how Twitter data can reveal emerging crises, infrastructure problems, and shifts in public opinion.
It is a major international, peer-reviewed journal that maps the shifting arena of war, conflict and terrorism in an intensively and extensively mediated age.