Ben Soodavar

Ben Soodavar is a political scientist that focuses on the psychology of political decision-making in war. He recently completed his PhD at the Department of War Studies at King's College London in 2023. He took up a post at Columbia University in New York during 2018, where he worked on information warfare. Beforehand, he completed his MA in Russian Politics at UCL. His research looks at how the concept of loss is understood and communicated in British foreign policy discourse; much of his work has applied approaches in cognitive psychology to foreign policy analysis - using discourse analysis.

He has taught International Relations Theory at King's College London and has recently served as a researcher in the House of Lords - working on foreign policy issues. Since 2022, Ben has published several articles on the war in Ukraine and used his theoretical framework to unpack the reasons behind Russia's decision-making. His research interests also include British and US foreign policy.