‘What happens to society in the absence of an alternative, counter-narrative to that of the national security state?’ (My presentation at the Center for Investigative Journalism in London)

Below are a few of the questions that I raised in a recent presentation that I gave at The Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ)​ in London (video below):

  • Five years after Manning's leaks are we capable of deliberation and thoughtfulness?

  • Are we capable of human agency in the age of leaks and myriad weak social ties?

  • What happens to society in the absence of an alternative, counter-narrative to that of the national security state?

  • Can we rely on Silicon Valley publishers to groom experts who can provide a counter-narrative to the national security state in the near term and the future?

I also discuss the journalistic methods that I have employed and the lessons that I have learned covering censored and suppressed news (with a particular emphasis on the Chelsea Manning trial).

Alexa O'Brien Alexa O'Brien conducts research and analysis about national security and law enforcement. Her work has been published in The New York Times, VICE News, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Guardian (UK), The Daily Beast, NY Daily News, and featured on the BBC, PBS, NPR, Democracy Now!, and Public Radio International. She was shortlisted for the 2013 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in the United Kingdom and listed in The Verge 50. In 2016, she worked at The Constitution Project in Washington, D.C. as a staff researcher and writer on an independent commission studying Oklahoma's death penalty. She also provided research support to scholars of the first cost study conducted on that state's capital punishment system. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, majoring in Political Science. She is currently pursuing a Master's in Applied Intelligence at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She resides in New York City.
_, Chelsea Manning