AVERT Newsletter

August 2021
Issue #2

Convenor’s Message

Welcome to the next edition of the AVERT Newsletter! Since our last communication, we’ve continued to develop our plans for 2021 and beyond. The challenges of the pandemic have seen many colleagues in Sydney, Queensland and Melbourne locked down once again, but we keep in perspective how much more challenging and difficult these scenarios are in other locations and contexts. The continuation of the pandemic has nevertheless also allowed us to more easily take advantage of the wonderful global scholarship in terrorism and violent extremism studies around the world.

We’ve run some amazing webinars, which you can read about below; been stimulated by a thought-provoking new commentary piece by Andrew Zammit on Australian connections to Islamic State in the post-‘caliphate’ era; convened a fascinating online conference on violent extremism risk assessment (June), with a terrific keynote by Professor Paul Gill and a range of excellent presentations and papers, and moved ahead with our plans for the internationally attuned AVERT Research Symposium in November, featuring two of the most outstanding women in terrorism and violent extremism studies today as keynotes: Emeritus Professor Martha Crenshaw (Stanford University) and Professor Maura Conway (Dublin City University/Swansea University/VOX-Pol). The AVERT call for papers for the Symposium will be coming out shortly– watch this space!

We have a brilliant webinar coming up on 25 August with Associate Professor Tahir Abbas, Leiden University, on ‘Islamophobia, Radicalisation and CVE’ – registration details are available here. In the meantime, stay well, work well, and please send us your news! We would love to feature as many new publications, grants, media mentions and projects from across the AVERT membership as we can. Send your news items to adi-avert@deakin.edu.au

Very best,
Michele

Professor Michele Grossman
Convenor, AVERT Research Network

Webinars

AVERT has continued its monthly webinar series, show casing the research and expertise of a number of Australian and international experts in the field of terrorism and extremism studies. Recordings of past webinars are accessible on our website here. We have a number of exciting webinars scheduled for the remainder of 2021.

Recordings of all past webinars are accessible on our website here.

Past Webinars

When Deradicalisation Goes Wrong: Applying the Social Psychology of Persuasion in Conflict to Understand Backlash Effects in PVE/CVE

Professor Winnifred Louis
Watch here

Critical Perspectives on CVE and PVE

Professor Richard Jackson
Associate Professor Sondre Lindahl
Watch here

Joint TSAS-AVERT Webinar on Religion and the Far Right

Professor Lorne Dawson
Associate Professor Amar Amarasingam
Associate Professor Anna Halafoff
Watch here

Right Wing Extremist Posting Behavior

Assistant Professor Ryan Scrivens
Watch here

Islamophobia, Radicalisation and CVE
Associate Professor Tahir Abbas
25 August 2021 5:00pm AEST

This presentation provides an overview of some of the challenges concerning understanding the impact of Islamophobia on the radicalisation of both Islamist and far-right groups and how political polarisation provides fertile territory for such manifestations of reciprocal extremism to take hold.

Five Eyes Counterterrorism Cooperation: 20 Years on From 9/11
Dr Matthew Levitt
20 September 2021 10:00am AEST

This presentation provides an overview of some of the challenges concerning understanding the impact of Islamophobia on the radicalisation of both Islamist and far-right groups and how political polarisation provides fertile territory for such manifestations of reciprocal extremism to take hold.

Update

AVERT is hard at work organising the upcoming AVERT Violent Extremism Symposium that will take place 3-5 November 2021. We are delighted to announce that we have secured two esteemed keynote speakers, Emerita Professor Martha Crenshaw and Professor Maura Conway. The conference – “Violent Extremism at the Crossroads: Persistence, Change and Dynamism 20 years after 9/11” – will once again bring together researchers, policy makers and civil society actors to examine the current violent extremism landscape, lessons learned over the past two decades about CVE programming, policy and partnerships and new challenges in this space. Please stay tuned for the release of the conference program and call for papers. More to come!

Keynote Speakers

Professor Maura Conway
Professor of International Security, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University

Martha Crenshaw, PhD
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Emerita
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science, Emerita

On 17-18 June 2021, AVERT convened the Violent Extremism Risk Assessment Conference. The invitation only, online conference brought together more than 200 Australian and international researchers and practitioners to explore issues around violent extremism risk assessment knowledge and practice. The conference, made possible by funding from Home Affairs, featured a keynote address from Professor Paul Gill, University College London as well as remarks by Dr Richard Johnson, First Assistant Secretary Social Cohesion, Home Affairs and AFP Assistant Commissioner Scott Lee.

The conference highlighted research-practitioner collaboration in this space and featured presentations from a number of AVERT members. It was a great example of AVERT facilitating the sharing of expertise, knowledge, and skills across communities, as well as identifying and addressing gaps in capability and research. Kudos to the AVERT conference organising committee members who made this conference possible and special thanks to Benjamin Freeman for his administrative and technical assistance!

AVERT Blog

Australian connections to Islamic State in the post-“Caliphate” era

Andrew Zammit
August 5, 2021

What forms do Australian connections to Islamic State take, now that the movement has lost its territory in Syria and Iraq? The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security’s ongoing inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia has given long-overdue attention to the extreme-right, but also highlighted that Islamic State remains a serious security concern.

To help understand the nature of Australian connections to Islamic State following the loss of its self-proclaimed “Caliphate”, this post examines the recent sentencing of Radwan Dakkak, one of the small number of Australians accused of supporting the movement during the post-“Caliphate” era. This post first briefly outlines Islamic State’s evolution after its territorial collapse in early 2019, and then discusses what Dakkak’s sentencing reveals about how these global events influence activities inside Australia.

Read the full article here

Member News

The ASPI Counterterrorism 2021 Edition
The ASPI Counterterrorism 2021 Edition also featured chapters by a number of AVERT network research members. Michele Grossman contributed a chapter on resilience and violent extremism,Alexandra Phelan on the crime terror nexus in Latin America, Levi West wrote about the impact of technology on extremism, Debra Smith on practitioner and academic partnership is understanding trajectories to violence and Lydia Khalil on the impact of natural disasters on violent extremism. Read it here.

(Con)spirituality in the Spotlight
A number of AVERT research members recently presented their work at an international colloquium on (Con)spirituality – the merging of conspiracy theories with alternative spiritualities. Associate Professor Anna Halafoff, Ms Lydia Khalil, Dr Vivian Gerrand, Dr Helen Young, Associate Professor Chad Whelan and Professor Greg Barton all spoke at the two-day event, which was hosted virtually as part of a project led by Deakin University and Western Sydney University, and funded by the International Network for the Study of Science & Belief in Society. Associate Professor Halafoff is the lead CI on the project. Read more about the colloquium and find links to videos here.

MATTEO
VERGANI

Vergani, M., Iqbal, M., O’Brien, K., Lentini, P., Barton, G. (2021) Examining the Relationship Between Alienation and Radicalization into Violent Extremism in Bonino, S. and Ricucci, R., Islam and Security in the West, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 115-138, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67925-5

Vergani, M. (2021) Community-centered P/CVE Research in Southeast Asia: Opportunities and Challenges. Washington, D.C.: RESOLVE Network, 2021. https://doi.org/10.37805/rve2021.1

Barton, G., Vergani, M., Wahid, Y. (2021) Santri with attitude: support for terrorism and negative attitudes to non-Muslims among Indonesian observant Muslims, «Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression»

Richards, I., Rae, M., Jones, C., Vergani, M. (2021) Political Philosophy and Australian Far-Right Media, «Thesis Eleven»

MARY BETH
ALTIER

Mary Beth Altier (2021) Criminal or Terrorist?: Fear, Bias, and Public Support for Prisoner Reentry Programs, Terrorism and Political Violence, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2020.1866556
Ungated version here.

Mary Beth Altier, Emma Leonard Boyle & John G. Horgan (2021) On Re-engagement and Risk Factors, Terrorism and Political Violence, 33:4, 868-874, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2021.1920241
Ungated version here.

Mary Beth presented her report Violent Extremist Disengagement & Reintegration: Lessons from Over 30 Years of DDR at a RESOLVE Network private roundtable in April and at a seminar hosted by the UN's DDR Section in May. She also presented on the panel "Recidivism and Radicalization" at the Jean Monnet Network on EU Counter-terrorism conference on "Terrorism in a Changing Landscape" held in June.

JOSH
ROOSE

The U.S. Sun (24 July 2021) Women hating ‘incels’ in the United States say they’re plotting World War III
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3337935/women-hating-incels-plotting-ww3-reset-society/

The Age (25 July 2021) Anti lock-down protests a coalition of the alienated and the far-right
https://www.smh.com.au/national/anti-lockdown-protests-a-coalition-of-the-alienated-and-the-far-right-20210725-p58cqv.html

SBS News (28 July 2021) Experts say anti-lockdown protests reveal a ‘much deeper-seated problem’ in Australia right now
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/experts-say-anti-lockdown-protests-reveal-a-much-deeper-seated-problem-in-australia-right-now

Mamamia (30 July 2021) "Selfish halfwits" is one way to look at the people who protested last Saturday. But there's another.
https://www.mamamia.com.au/lockdown-protests/

The Canberra Times (01 August 2021) Coronavirus, 5G and anti-maskers: the raw street power of ignorance
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7361035/the-raw-street-power-of-ignorance/

Australian Financial review (02 August 2021) Vaccine goal will bind social fabric
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/vaccine-goal-will-bind-social-fabric-20210801-p58evq

MARIO
PEUCKER

Mario Peucker, Peter Lentini, Debra Smith & Muhammad Iqbal (2021) ‘Our diggers would turn in their graves’: nostalgia and civil religion in Australia’s far-right, Australian Journal of Political Science, 56:2, 189-205, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2021.1935448

ADRIAN
CHERNEY

Adrian Cherney, Idhamsyah E Putra, Vici Sofianna Putera, Fajar Erikha, & Muhammad Faisal Magrie (2021) The push and pull of radicalization and extremist disengagement: The application of criminological theory to Indonesian and Australian cases of radicalization. Journal of Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1177/26338076211034893

Cherney, Adrian, De Rooy, Kathleen, and Eggins, Elizabeth (2021). Mandatory participation in programs to counter violent extremism: A review of evidence for and against. Journal for Deradicalisation (27) 1-33.

New project
Systematic review of evidence for case management interventions in fields relating to and including countering radicalization to violence (Campbell Collaboration grant led by St Andrews, UK, 2021-2022).

ANDREW
ZAMMIT

Gaetano Joe Ilardi, Debra Smith & Andrew Zammit (2021) Revisiting the relationship between academics and national security practitioners, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, 16:1, 1-11, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18335330.2021.1895441

Debra Smith, Gaetano (Joe) Ilardi and Andrew Zammit co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Policing Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, addressing the topic of Navigating the divide: Cooperation between academia and national security practitioners. It was released on 26 April 2021: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpic20/16/1?nav=tocList

LYDIA
KHALIL

Research report for the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) “Survey on the Role of Technology in Violent Extremism and the State of Research Community – Tech Industry Engagement.”

Feature for the Saturday Paper on ASIO’s nee terminology around violent extremism “Right Angles: extremism and clear terminology.”

Appeared on the 7am podcast - “The Terrorism arrests you missed.”

Quoted in FT article on the prospects of terrorism in Hong Kong.

Future Opportunities

Journal of Online Trust and Safety

The Stanford Internet Observatory launches a new open-access journal to feature cutting-edge research on online harm. The Journal of Online Trust and Safety will be a cross-disciplinary, open access, fast peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on how consumer internet services are abused to cause harm and how to prevent those harms. The journal was conceived from a recognition that much of the cutting-edge research on online harm lacks an appropriate journal for publication. With this journal, we will bring together researchers in and outside of academia from diverse fields including communication, computer science, criminology, law, political science, psychology, public policy and sociology. The journal’s rapid review process will ensure that published work is timely and relevant. Issues may also include supplementary editorial pieces or journalistic investigations. Each year, the journal will release at least two general issues as well as one themed issue with an accompanying symposium. Priority topics for the journal include:

Spam and fraud
Encryption
Hate speech and harassment
Child exploitation and non-consensual intimate imagery
Suicide and self-harm
Incitement and terrorism
Misinformation and disinformation

https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/announcing-journal-online-trust-and-safety

Department of Defence - The Strategic Policy Grants Program (SPGP)

The Strategic Policy Grants Program (SPGP) is a mechanism for Defence to support independent research, events and activities to shape the public Australian strategic debate, with a focus on Defence issues, and support and enhance Defence’s strategic policy advice.
https://www.grants.gov.au/Go/Show?GoUuid=07ce16b2-86e6-4b0f-bbe8-cd34286afcc2

Application deadline extended to 19th September 2021.

New Members

AVERT is delighted to welcome and introduce the following new research members who have joined our network. To apply for AVERT membership please click here.

AVERT Newsletter

Convenor’s Message

Webinars