Events
AVERT regularly hosts events and webinars featuring the latest research on topics related to violent extremism, terrorism, radicalisation and countering violent extremism
Recent events
Dr. Nell Bennett
Fellow at Blue Security, La Trobe Asia and the Blue Security Consortium
Editor, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counterterrorism
Online Event
Zoom
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
17:00 - 18:00 AEDT
The Bureaucracy of Violence: Organisational Survival and the Challenge of Disengagement
Why do some terrorist groups keep going long after they’ve lost public support or any real chance of success? This webinar drew on new research to offer a fresh perspective: many violent extremist groups act less like movements with a cause, and more like organisations trying to survive.
Instead of focusing only on beliefs or radicalisation, this session looked at how internal structures, routines and self-preservation can drive group behaviour over time. It used ideas from organisational studies to explain how extremist groups can become stuck in patterns of violence, even when the original goal no longer makes sense.
For practitioners, this matters. If we want to design better counter-terrorism or disengagement strategies, we need to understand the internal workings of these groups: how decisions are made, how leaders hold power and how the group stays together. This is especially important in long-running or fragmented conflicts, where defeating an ideology isn’t enough. The session offered a new way of thinking about how extremist groups operate, and why they can be so hard to shut down.
Dr. Nell Bennett is a researcher with expertise in terrorism, political violence and strategic studies. Her work focuses on how violent organisations evolve, endure and end. She is currently a Blue Security Fellow with La Trobe Asia and the Blue Security Consortium, and editor of the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counterterrorism.
She holds a PhD and Master of Research from Macquarie University and graduated from the Diploma in Law (LPAB) with the Stuart Spencer Prize for Academic Excellence. In addition to her academic work, Nell practises in criminal law at the Victorian Bar. She is the author of Euskadi ta Askatasuna: A Case Study on Terrorist Dynamics and the Fight to Survive (Oxford University Press, 2025) and editor of Strategic Minds and Terrorist Challenges in the Indo-Pacific (Routledge, 2025).
Dr. Arie Perliger
Professor of Security Studies, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Online event
Zoom
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
7.30 - 8.30 PM EDT
Wednesday, 24 September 2025
09.30 – 10.30 AM AEST
Exploring the Religious Dimensions of American Far-Right Extremist Discourse
Recent research has shown that violent far-right groups are increasingly using Christian language, symbols, and stories. This suggests that religion is being used to help motivate and justify their actions. In this webinar, Dr. Arie Perliger will explore how the core beliefs of these groups influence the way far-right groups use Christian ideas and messages. To explain this, Dr. Perliger studied over 10,000 online posts and messages from six violent far-right communities. Dr. Perliger then analyzed this material to understand how these groups use Christian narratives to build their moral arguments, define who belongs and who doesn’t, promote their views of crisis, and justify violence.
Dr. Arie Perliger is a Professor University of Massachusetts Lowell. Between 2010-2016 he served as a faculty and the Director of Terrorism studies at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and between 2016-2023 as the director of the graduate program in security studies at the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at UMass Lowell.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Perliger has been engaged in an extensive study of issues related to terrorism and political violence, security policy and politics (including the nexus of security and climate change), politics and extremism of the far right in Israel, Europe, and the US, Middle Eastern Politics, and the applicability of Social Network Analysis to the study of political violence. His studies have appeared in nine books and monographs and in numerous articles and book chapters and have been cited in more than 2600 academic texts. His latest book, American Zealots – Inside Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism (Columbia University Press, 2020), provides an in-depth analysis of the history and contemporary trends of the violent American far-right.
Dr. Emma Belton
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Queensland
Online Event
Zoom
Wednesday, 3 September 2025
11:00 - 12:00 AEST
Public Release of the Profiles of Individual Radicalisation in Australia (PIRA) Database: Applications for Research, Policy and Practice
This webinar presented the Profiles of Individual Radicalisation in Australia (PIRA) database, which records information on individuals in Australia who have radicalised to extremism between 1985 and 2023. The database covers a range of ideologies, including Islamist, far-right, far-left, and single-issue extremism. Using open-source information, PIRA compiles data across 123 variables relating to demographics, personal backgrounds, group dynamics, and contextual factors. Individuals are categorised as either violent or non-violent based on their actions, following a framework closely aligned with the Profiles of Individual Radicalisation in the United States (PIRUS) database.
Established to support research, the open-access version contains de-identified information on 261 extremists, both violent and non-violent, with individuals coded against 114 variables. This webinar assists researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in better understanding pathways to violent extremism and identifying background characteristics and risk factors linked to radicalisation.
Dr Emma Belton is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland and the Australian National University. Her research concentrates on radicalisation pathways, violent extremist risk assessment, and evaluating countering violent extremism (CVE) initiatives in custodial and community settings. Previously, she was the project manager for an ARC-funded project responsible for developing the Profiles of Individual Radicalisation in Australia (PIRA) dataset, which gathers data on individuals radicalised to extremism and terrorist offenders. She holds a PhD in Criminology from the University of Queensland. Her doctoral research examines the traits of individual radicalisation and violent extremism in Australia, aiming to enhance understanding of risk factors linked to both violent and non-violent extremists. Dr Belton has received training in using the VERA-2R tool and has worked with various stakeholders, including the Department of Home Affairs, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, the Department of Justice and Community Safety, and NSW Corrective Services.
Event recordings
2025
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Rik Peels - Cognitive and Behavioral Radicalization: An Explanatory Split
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Joel Busher - Violence escalation and inhibition during far-right protest waves
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Emma Belton - Public Release of the Profiles of Individual Radicalisation in Australia (PIRA) Database
AVERT Hybrid Event - 2025 Global Terrorism Index Launch
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Julie Chernov Hwang - The Disbanding of Jemaah Islamiyah
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Arie Perliger - Exploring the Religious Dimensions of American Far-Right Extremist Discourse
AVERT Webinar - Emerging Global Perspectives on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism
Rethinking religion and radicalisation: The role(s) of religion in far-right extremist movements
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Nell Bennett - The Bureaucracy of Violence: Organisational Survival and the Challenge of Disengagement
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Keiran Hardy - How (Not) to Argue with a Sovereign Citizen
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Imogen Richards - The Aesthetic Politics of Far-right Environmentalism
2024
AVERT Webinar with Dr. Mario Peucker - Understanding and Countering the Rise of the Far-Right
AVERT Webinar with Dr Suraj Lakhani - The nexus between videogaming and violent extremism
AVERT Webinar with Dr Aaron Y Zelin - The Evolution of the Islamic State
AVERT Webinar with Dr Julia Ebner - Is There a Language of Terrorists?
AVERT Webinar with Dr Imogen Richards - The Far Right and the Environment in Australia.
AVERT Webinar with Professor John Horgan - Terrorist Minds
AVERT Webinar - Research on Radicalisation Countering Radicalisation: Where have we got to and ways forward.
AVERT Webinar with Jade Hutchinson - “The Far-Right Online Ecosystem”: How a Network of Platforms and Devices Shape Far-Right Violent Extremism
AVERT Webinar with Dr Lauren Moulds and John Young - Rethinking CVE Interventions: a needs based approach to supporting extremists and terrorist offenders
AVERT Webinar with Professor Stuart Macdonald - “Outlinks”: Violent Jihadist Online Propaganda Dissemination Strategies
2023
AVERT Webinar with Professor Daniel Byman - The October 7th Attacks: Hamas Goals, Israeli Response and Global Impacts
December 2023
AVERT Webinar with Professor Sébastien Brouillette-Alarie - Systematic review of the reliability and validity of risk tools for violent radicalization: Is the evidence base solid?
9 November 2023
AVERT Webinar with Associate Professor David Malet - Ukraine Foreign Fighters: Volunteers on the Right Side or the Far-Right’s ISIS?
1 August 2023
AVERT Webinar with Emma Belton - Understanding the progression to violence: Background characteristics and risk factors for radicalisation to violent extremism
July 6, 2023
AVERT Webinar with Dr Marc-André Argentino - QAnon as a New Religious Movement and its Implications for Violent Extremism
MAY 19, 2023
AVERT Webinar with Dr Vivian Gerrand - Understanding conspiritual radicalisation and militant wellness movements: harnessing alternative health capital?
18 October 2023
AVERT Webinar with Professor Joel Busher - Pathways Towards and Away From Violence During Waves of Far Right Protest
April 19, 2023
AVERT Webinar with Professor Paul Thomas - The State of British Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE)
MAR 6, 2023
2022
AVERT Webinar with Dr Imogen Richards - Far Right Identitarianism and the Great Replacement Conspiracy in Australia
AUG 8, 2022
AVERT Webinar with Prof. Dr. Jan-Willem van Prooijen - Belief in Conspiracy Theories and Extremism
JUN 20, 2022
AVERT Webinar with Annemarie van de Weert. - The Role of Subjectivity in the Early Detection of Violent Extremism Among Youth
MAY 18, 2022
AVERT Webinar with Professor Maura Conway - Online Extremism and Terrorism: What to Watch for in 2022
APR 14, 2022
2021
TSAS AVERT Religion and the Far Right 2
OCT 25, 2021
AVERT Webinar: Rethinking US Efforts on Counterterrorism: Toward a Sustainable Plan 20 Years after 9/11
SEP 20, 2021
AVERT Webinar - Afghanistan and the Return of the Taliban
SEP , 2021
AVERT Webinar with Associate Professor Tahir Abbas - Islamophobia, Reciprocal Radicalisation and CVE
AUG, 2021
Ryan Scrivens - Online Behaviour of Right Wing Extremists
AUG 5, 2021
AVERT Webinar with Professor Winnifred Louis: When Deradicalisation Goes Wrong?
JUN 21, 2021
Joint AVERT-TSAS Webinar: Religion and the Far Right
JUN 21, 2021
AVERT Webinar: Critical Perspectives on CVE and PVE
MAY 31, 2021
AVERT Speaker Series: Dr Shiri Krebs on “Counterterrorism & Predictive Technologies”
MAR 19, 2021
2020
AVERT International Speaker Series: Maura Conway
DEC 11, 2020
AVERT International Speaker Series: John Horgan
NOV 20, 2020
AVERT International Speaker Series: Dr Haroro J. Ingram and Dr Craig Whiteside
NOV 17, 2020
AVERT Webinar with Dr Helen Young
NOV 8, 2020
AVERT International Speaker Series: John Morrison on “Talking Stagnation”
OCT 20, 2020