Stephen Jolly

The Much Hon. (Stephen) William Jolly (born 1960), commonly known as "Stephen Jolly" is a British academic. He has been a Fellow and Bye-Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge since 2005. A former Cambridge Judge Business School Fellow, he served two distinguished Vice-Chancellors – Professor Dame Alison Richard DBE and Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz FRS – as the University's Director of External Affairs & Communications between 2005–13.

Jolly is the founder Chairman of the Cambridge alumni group, Clare in Whitehall but is perhaps best known for his academic research on the history of propaganda as well as his work reforming British military influence operations.

A linguistic scientist, Jolly was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge where he took First Class Honours in English, was a Bachelor Scholar and College Prizeman; the University of Sussex; and the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he held both a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Killam Fellowship in the late 1980s.

Jolly has a research interest in black propaganda and has published extensively on the topic, with particular reference to the work of British propagandist Sefton Delmer. His research was cited as evidence by the House of Commons Defence Select Committee in its Third Report on Information Operations in 2003–4. Jolly is a member of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar and associate of former official MI5 historian, Professor Christopher Andrew.

A former instructor at the British Defence Intelligence and Security Centre, Chicksands, Jolly was a Visiting Fellow in Psychological Warfare at the International Centre for Security Analysis, King's College, London (1999–2002). Web sources link Jolly to Shadow, a precursor to the now defunct 15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group, which was subsumed into the British Army's 77 Brigade in 2015.

A certified psyops planner, Jolly has been identified as a leading member of the Black and White Association of British Psychological Warfare Veterans as well as the holder of a 15 (UK) Psyops Group service award marking his contribution to the work of the Group.

Jolly has been a Freeman of the City of London since 2000. In 2004, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of St Lazarus (CLJ) in recognition of his contributions to charity.

In addition, Jolly holds a Fellowship in Defence & Security at the British policy think-tank ResPublica, an Honorary Research Fellowship in Defence and Security at the global think tank, RAND Europe, and a Visiting Fellowship in the War Studies Department of King's College, London. He served as Honorary Captain of the Light Blue Volunteers, the Cambridge University Officers' Training Corps, between 2009–16.

In 2013, Jolly became the UK's Director of Defence Communications, a 2* appointment at the Ministry of Defence. In his two years in post, Jolly made waves in military circles by driving forward a "full spectrum" approach to Defence communications, encompassing public relations, media operations, information operations, and psyops. Defense commentators dubbed this "post-Afghan reset" of communications the "Rainbow in the Dark" doctrine. It was an approach that entailed the most radical shake-up in British Defence communications in more than thirty years.

Jolly served as Chairman of the cross-government National Security Communications Committee in 2014–5 and was a member of the Government Communications Board during that period. Jolly was seconded briefly to the Cabinet Office in 2015 before joining the UK Joint Forces Command, where he advised the Director-General, of Joint Force Development on reform of British military influence operations. Jolly was the most senior serving psyops officer in British Defence, equivalent to a Major-General before he moved into the commercial sector in 2016.

Articles published include:

• "Who's Afraid of Viktor Shklovsky? On The Nature of Persuasion and the Work of an Unjustly Neglected Russian Formalist", Impact: The Magazine of the Association of Commonwealth Universities PR, Marketing and Communications Network, 6-7: No 11 (August 2011)
• "We are all Marketeers Now", CAM: Cambridge University Alumni Magazine, 39: Issue 63 (Easter 2011)
• "Crimes of Coercive Persuasion: Rectification under the Khmer Rouge", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 173, 52-55 (2001)
• "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)
• "Understanding Body Language: Ray Birdwhistell's Theory of Kinesics", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 5 (3), 133-139 (2000)
• "Delmer's Maxims of Subversion: British Black Propaganda Techniques in WW2", Falling Leaf: The Journal of the Psywar Society, 169, 64-70 (2000)
• "Text or Context: Jan-Ola Östman's Theory of Persuasion", The Journal of Communication Management, 4 (2), 159-163 (1999)
• "Corporate Advocacy in Public Affairs: Winning a Voice in the Marketplace of Ideas", International Public Relations Review, 21 (3), 10-13 (1999)