AVERT Newsletter
APRIL 2023
Co-convenor’s Message
The first few months of 2023 have flown by and AVERT has been busy throughout! We began the year in January with a Ministerial Roundtable bringing AVERT academics together with government representatives to explore current trends and developments in violent extremism and what we have learned over the last twenty years of counterterrorism and countering violent extremism initiatives and models, informed by two AVERT briefing papers on these issues with input from multiple AVERT members.
In March, we hosted AVERT Visiting Fellow Professor Paul Thomas from the UK for a packed visit including three lectures and the advancement of various collaborative research projects with AVERT colleagues in Australia. Also in March, we convened a thought-provoking two-day workshop on neurodiversity and violent extremism for forensic psychologists and CVE practitioners, which included an informative and stimulating training segment with Dr Zainab al-Attar from the UK, an internationally recognised expert in working with neurodiverse clients in correctional and other settings.
We kicked off 2023’s AVERT seminar/webinar program with a hybrid in-person/online seminar with Professor Paul Thomas (University of Huddersfield) on the current state of the UK’s Prevent Strategy in March, followed in April by a webinar with Professor Joel Busher (Coventry University, UK) on ‘Pathways towards and away from violence during waves of far-right protest’. Please stay tuned for further seminars and webinars as the program of speakers and topics continues to roll out.
AVERT has also been delighted to facilitate the Phase 1 funding call for the Department of Home Affairs National Research Project, a major new two-phase research initiative focused on changes in motivation, diversification and impact for violent extremism in Australia that will help ensure Australia’s counterterrorism and countering violent extremism policies are fit for purpose in a dynamic and evolving environment.
And we are already busy planning for the 2023 AVERT Research Symposium, which will be held at the end of September this year. Please look out for further announcements on theme, keynote speakers and the call for paper proposals.
Thank you to those AVERT members who have sent us their latest news on research publications, media contributions and research grants, featured below. Keep scrolling for more detail about all the activities we’ve summarised above, and we look forward to updates on members’ activities and achievements for the next newsletter!
Professor Michele Grossman
AVERT Co-convenor
Lydia Khalil
AVERT Co-convenor
Neurodiversity and violent extremism workshop
On March 16 and 17, AVERT hosted an in-person workshop on neurodiversity and violent extremism. Organised in conjunction with the Department of Home Affairs, the workshop brought together practitioners and policymakers from almost every jurisdiction across Australia, to facilitate knowledge exchange and learn from the latest evidence-based research.
The workshop featured presentations on the latest research evidence on neurodiversity and violent extremism, practitioner presentations, case study discussions, and a training session on the Framework for the Assessment of Risk and Protection in Offenders on the Autistic Spectrum (FARAS), delivered by Dr Zainab Al-Attar from the University of Central Lancashire, UK.
National research on radicalisation and violent extremism in Australia: Changes in motivation, diversification and impact over the last three years
(Click to enlarge)
In March, AVERT announced a new national research project funded by the Department of Home Affairs. In support of the Department’s objective to ensure that Australia’s counter terrorism and countering violent extremism policies are fit for purpose, with a focus on preventing radicalisation to violence, the CVE Centre of Excellence for Research, Risk Assessment and Training (CVE CoE) has commissioned ‘National research on radicalisation and violent extremism in Australia: Changes in motivation, diversification and impact over the last three years’.
The first phase of the two-phase project is a comprehensive literature review to identify existing research and trends on radicalisation and violent extremism in Australia over the last three years.
Funding for Phase One ($350,000 AUD) is administered by AVERT based on the execution of the National Research Project funding agreement with the Department of Home Affairs.
The call for proposals closed 15 April and the final project deliverable for Phase One is due 31 July 2023.
The project proposal statement and call specification are available here: https://www.avert.net.au/opportunities
Ministerial Roundtable
In January 2023, AVERT was honoured to host a research roundtable with the Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil at the behest of the Department of Home Affairs. A number of AVERT research members were invited by the Department of Home Affairs to attend the Roundtable to share their research priorities and offer their evidence based perspectives on the future of the violent extremism landscape. AVERT was also able to highlight the breadth of expertise of our entire membership and the ways in which the AVERT research network serves as a collaborative forum for research expertise and engagement with government and civil society sectors. AVERT was pleased to able to facilitate the first such ministerial consultation and we have already seen how this gathering has informed ministerial and government focus areas and further engagement with the research community.
AVERT Visiting Fellow Professor Paul Thomas (University of Huddersfield, UK) in Australia
In March 2023, we were delighted to welcome back the distinguished P/CVE researcher Professor Paul Thomas (University of Huddersfield, UK) as an AVERT Visiting Fellow. During his two weeks in Melbourne, Paul, a member of the AVERT Steering Committee, offered a fascinating AVERT seminar on the current state of the Prevent Strategy for preventing and countering violent extremism in Great Britain, and a thought-provoking lecture and panel discussion with colleagues on multiculturalism, geography, public policy and racialised resentment at 2023’s first Alfred Deakin Institute Policy Forum at Deakin University. Paul also flew to Canberra to give a talk, hosted by the Department of Home Affairs, for a range of government officials and agencies on two interrelated topics: first, an update on the UK’s national prevention of violent extremism community reporting support service, ‘Act Early’, and second, a critically informed assessment of the recent Shawcross Prevent Review, which has generated significant commentary and controversy since its release. In addition, Paul advanced work on several collaborative research projects with Australian colleagues.
AVERT 2023 Seminar Series
AVERT’s 2023 seminar series commenced this month with a hybrid presentation from Professor Paul Thomas (University of Huddersfield, UK), which was delivered at Deakin Downtown in Melbourne and streamed online. Paul’s seminar, The State of British Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE), can be viewed on the AVERT website.
New Report: Pathways of Resilience to Violent Extremism in Indonesian Higher Education
A new report on building resilience to violent extremism in Indonesia has recently been released, based on research conducted by the NGO Love Frankie, with funding from USAID.
The research adapts and applies the Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism (BRAVE) measure for youth developed by AVERT Co-convenor Professor Michele Grossman, alongside colleagues Dr Michael Ungar (a CRIS Consortium partner) and Dr Vivian Gerrand (both an AVERT and CRIS member).
Access the reports in English and Indonesian here.
AVERT 2023 Research Symposium
Save the date! The AVERT 2023 Research Symposium will be held on September 26th, 27th and 28th at Deakin Downtown in Melbourne, Australia. Further information, including symposium theme, keynote speaker and the call for presenter proposals will be available on the AVERT website shortly.
April webinar
Pathways Towards and Away From Violence During Waves of Far Right Protest
Professor Joel Busher
Coventry University, UK
April 19, 2023 – 4:00pm AEST via Zoom
While many far right or anti-minority protest events result in relatively little, or only low level, physical violence, in recent years, several countries have seen waves of far right or anti-minority protests that have resulted in extensive violence – causing significant security and public order concerns. So why does physical violence escalate beyond ‘normal’ levels during some waves of far right or anti-minority protest and not others, and what are the implications for policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders? In this presentation, Joel Busher reflected on these questions drawing on a recently concluded project that traced the pathways towards and away from violence during four periods of intense far right or anti-minority activism: Dover, UK (September 2014 – April 2016), Sunderland, UK (September 2016 – December 2018), Chemnitz, Germany (August – December 2018) and Charlottesville, USA (February – July 2017).
About the speaker
Joel Busher is Professor of Political Sociology at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University. His research addresses far right and exclusivist activism; the escalation and inhibition of violence associated with contentious politics; and the evolution and enactment of efforts to prevent and counter ‘violent extremism’. He is co-editor of Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method and Practice (Routledge), and The Prevent Duty in Education: Impact, Enactment and Implications (Palgrave Macmillan). His book, The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest (Routledge), was awarded the British Sociological Association’s Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.
Member news
Professor Amparo Pamela Fabe
Publications
Fabe, Amparo Pamela H. “Philippine Efforts in Managing Threats to Good Order at Sea” in Maritime Cooperation and Security in the Indo-Pacific Region Essays in Honor of Sam Bateman, (eds), John Bradford, Jane Chan, Stuart Kaye, Clive Schofield and Geoffrey Till, Brill Publishing, Leiden, The Netherlands, January 2023. [link]
Scott Romaniuk, Payam Foroughi, and Amparo Pamela Fabe. The Fate of Afghanistan: Local, Regional and Global Contingencies, Manchester University Press, UK, May 2023.
Fabe, Amparo Pamela Fabe, Scott Romaniuk, Debashish Candy and Joan Andrea Toledo. Global Handbook of Hawala Payments. Routledge, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, US. June 2023.
Fabe, Amparo Pamela, Joan Andrea Toledo and Sylvia Laksmi. “The Growth of Financial Technology in Indonesia: Implications for Terrorism Financing.” International Annals of Criminology, University of Cambridge Press, September 2022. [link]
Fabe, Amparo Pamela Fabe, Christian Kaunert Joan Andrea Toledo and Sylvia Laksmi. “Safeguarding the Philippine Financial Technology Sector from Terrorism Financing.” Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies, June 2022. [link]
Lydia Khalil
Publications
Khalil, L. 2023. “Banning the Nazi salute opens a Pandora’s Box.” The Age, March 29, 2023. [link]
Khalil, L. 2023. “Ideology is back, and it’s critical for understanding AUKUS v China.” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 16, 2023. [link]
Presentations
Presented at the ADC Forum Leadership Retreat, 23-25 March, 2023, Brisbane, Australia. [link]
Dr Alexandra Phelan
Publications
Phelan, A., White, J., Paterson, J. and Wallner, C. (2023). Misogyny, Hostile Beliefs and the Transmission of Extremism: A Comparison of the Far-Right in the UK and Australia, CREST.
[link]
Phelan, A., White, J., Wallner, C and Paterson, J. (2023). Introductory Guide to Understanding Misogyny and the Far-Right, CREST
[link]
Dr Imogen Richards
Presentations
Richards, I. 2023. From past to present: The question of populism, extremism and the far right in Australia. Presented for the panel “Populism and the Far Right in Australia”, European Center for Populism Studies, March 23, 2023.
Dr Matteo Vergani
Publications
Bouguettaya, A., Vergani, M., Sainsbury, C., and Bliuc, A-M. (2023) I won’t listen if I think we’re losing our way: How right-wing authoritarianism affects the response to different anti-prejudice messages. PLoS ONE 18(1): e0280557.
[link]
Dr Helen Young
Publications
Geoff Boucher & Helen Young (2023) Digital books and the far right, Continuum. [link]