About Lydia

Lydia Khalil is a Senior Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute and serves as Convenor of the Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism (AVERT) Network. She is also a Project Director at the Lowy Institute.

In her capacity at Deakin University, in addition to her research focus, she also serves as Convener of the AVERT (Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism) Research Network and as liaison to the Research and Evaluation Working Group (REWG) of CVESC. As part of her work with the Lowy Institute, Lydia manages the Transnational Challenges Program and Digital Threats to Democracy Project.

Lydia has a broad range of policy, research and private sector experience, and has a professional background in international relations and national security - focusing on counterterrorism, countering violent extremism, transnational digital challenges, democratic safeguarding and strategic intelligence analysis. Lydia has held previous appointments as an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Macquarie University.

Lydia has extensive national security and law enforcement experience. She served as a senior policy advisor to the Boston Police Department, working on countering violent extremism, intelligence and counterterrorism, and community policing strategies. While at the Boston Police Department she was responsible for the Department’s first ever CVE strategy and worked as a core interagency member of one of three pilot locations in the United States chosen by the Obama Whitehouse to develop an approach to enhance efforts at preventing violent extremism. She has also worked as a senior counterterrorism and intelligence analyst for the New York Police Department. Lydia also served as a political advisor for the US Department of Defense in Iraq.

Lydia is a member of the Victorian Government Countering Violent Extremism Expert Advisory Committee and served as a member of the Victorian Terrorism and Community Protection Act (TCPA) Review Expert Advisory Group, among other government advisory appointments. She is also a part of the Toda Peace Institute’s International Research Advisory Council where she advises on the development of the Global Challenges to Democracy research stream.

She also holds other affiliate and non resident appointments. Lydia is a research affiliate of the National Security College at Australia National University (ANU) and is research member of the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS) where she leads the Crisis Points Project on the intersection of disasters, extremism and disinformation. She is also a member of the US based Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Working Group and the United Nations Security Council’s Global Research Network (GRN).

Lydia also serves as an editorial board member of the academic journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. She holds a BA in International Relations from Boston College and a Masters in International Security from Georgetown University.