AVERT Newsletter
DECEMBER 2022
Convenor’s Message
It’s been a massive year for AVERT in 2022 as we continued to transit the impacts and implications of the pandemic. We have significantly grown our membership, welcoming a number of new research and affiliate members to the Network. We’ve produced a further two Rapid Evidence Assessments through our agreement with the Department of Home Affairs, including outstanding work on neurodiversity and violent extremism and on disguised compliance issues in intervention and disengagement settings. Arising from our 2021 conference on risk assessment, we’ve published a special issue of the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism on violent extremist risk assessment, guest-edited by and comprising contributions from a wide range of AVERT members.
In November, we held a highly successful international research symposium featuring both in-person and online presentations on violent extremist interventions, which included hosting the wonderful Professor John Horgan from Georgia State University as the symposium keynote speaker alongside a range of other AVERT-sponsored events and activities. We also convened productive and inspiring dialogues with community organisations and representatives about future research agendas for AVERT and strengthened our relationships with various government agencies and community organisations. And of course, we continued to produce a stimulating and provocative series of webinars from researchers and experts around the world focusing on key issues in terrorism and violent extremism studies today. For details about all these outcomes and events, read on!
As we head towards the end of 2022, we’re already looking forward to an exciting and productive year for AVERT in 2023, with some exciting upcoming announcements scheduled for the new year. I’d like to thank in particular AVERT Coordinator Lydia Khalil and Benjamin Freeman, our Technical and Administrative Support Officer, for their outstanding work and commitment throughout the year, and also to thank every AVERT member for their contributions in advancing researcher and practitioner engagement and expertise in our field. Wishing everyone a happy festive season and – for those of us in Australia – a relaxing and restorative break over the summer!
AVERT will be taking a break over December and January. Very best wishes for the holidays and the new year and we look forward to being back in touch in February 2023.
Professor Michele Grossman
AVERT Convenor
2022 AVERT Research Symposium
This year’s AVERT Research Symposium – ‘The Space Between: New Directions for CVE Interventions’ – was held on 21-22 November at Deakin University. The research symposium engaged with the latest research and practice perspectives on CVE intervention, bringing together Australian and international researchers and practitioners and policymakers at the forefront of the field, presenting on the latest research and practitioner evidence and insights. We were also delighted to feature Professor John Horgan as our keynote speaker; Professor Horgan’s keynote address, ‘Terrorism in a Time of Ideological Promiscuity’, prompted us to rethink our understanding and approaches to terrorist and violent extremist motivation. Professor Hogan’s keynote address and the recordings of the full conference presentations are available on the AVERT website.
AVERT Webinars
We featured some outstanding webinar contributions from a range of Australian and international researchers, including Dr Imogen Richards’s presentation on far right identitarianism and the Great Replacement conspiracy, Professor Jan Willem van Prooijn on belief in conspiracy theories and extremism, Annemarie van de Weert on the role of practitioner subjectivity in the early detection of violent extremism among youth, and Professor Maura Conway on what to watch for in online extremism. Full recordings of all AVERT webinars are available in our archive.
Dr Imogen Richards
Annemarie van de Weert
Professor Jan-Willem van Prooijen
Professor Maura Conway
Community Roundtable
Engaging with community stakeholders is an important part of the AVERT Research Network’s mission to understand, address and reduce the social harms caused by radicalisation to violent extremism and terrorism. In 2022 AVERT was finally able to conduct its inaugural community roundtable after many years of being thwarted by pandemic restrictions. Engaging with community stakeholders is an important part of the AVERT Research Network’s mission as well as an important opportunity to hear from impacted and engaged community members and build and strengthen relationships among researchers and community stakeholders. During our inaugural roundtable we were able to engage with a number of community stakeholders such as the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights, Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN), Executive Council for Australian Jewry, Islamic Council of Victoria, Board of Imams Victoria, and others. We look forward to continuing our community roundtables as they provide key opportunities to develop partnerships through research activities.
JPICT Special Issue on Violent Extremist Risk Assessment
Arising from our 2021 conference on risk assessment, AVERT members Professor Adrian Cherney, Professor Michele Grossman and Lydia Khalil guest edited a special issue of the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism on violent extremist risk assessment. It comprises fascinating articles from AVERT members on risk assessment including “The Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol-18 (TRAP-18) in Australia” by Drs Emily Corner & Natalie Pyszora, “Justice and risk assessment: The subjectivity of pre-emptive screening of radicalisation processes” by Annemarie van de Weert, “A community resilience linguistic framework for risk assessment” by David Kernot, Sarah Leslie & Martin Wood, and “Violent extremism risk assessment in the Australian courts” by Dr Natalie Pyszora, Dr Kelly Mischel, Matea Doroc & Naomi Prince, and “Violent Extremism Risk Assessment and Screening Analysis” by Drs Elaine Pressman & Natalie Davis.
We were pleased in August to host a delegation of McCain Institute national security fellows and senior McCain Institute directors from their National Security program, including director Nick Rasmussen, for a roundtable at Macquarie University in Sydney. AVERT members engaged with McCain Institute national security fellows on shared geostrategic and domestic challenges among Five Eyes partner countries, comparative approaches to countering violent extremism, and ideas on how to further engagement among the government, research and industry sectors.
McCain Institute Delegation
Rapid Evidence Assessments
Through our agreement with the Australian Department of Home Affairs, AVERT ran a competitive commissioning process for two additional rapid evidence assessments (REAs). Published in 2022 and available on the AVERT website, Professor Adrian Cherney, Amy Templar and Professor Daniel Koehler produced an REA on disguised compliance and Drs. Rachel Worthington, Zainab al Attar, Alexandra Lewis and Natalie Psyzora’s REA focused on evidence related to neurodiversity and violent extremism.
AVERT Submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Extremism
The AVERT Network was pleased to offer a submission that included contributions from a number of AVERT members to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into extremism, which examined issues around the rise of right-wing extremism, recruitment and communication methods of extremists groups, the risks posed to multicultural communities, elected officials and public figures, as well as ways to counter far right extremist groups and their influence. The AVERT submission can be found here. The full report from the inquiry can be accessed here.
Member news
Professor Adrian Cherney
Publications
Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, Volume 17, Issue 3 (2022) – Special Issue: Violent Extremist Risk Assessment: Contexts, Challenges and New Directions. Guest Editors: Adrian Cherney, Michele Grossman & Lydia Khalil. [link]
Assistant Professor Joana Cook
Publications
Roose, Joshua M., and Joana Cook. "Supreme Men, Subjected Women: Gender Inequality and Violence in Jihadist, Far Right and Male Supremacist Ideologies." Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2022): 1-29.
Grants
Lead investigator for the EU-funded PREPARE project - PREPARE supports children in families with links to violent extremism. The PREPARE project held its second co-creation workshop with frontline practitioners. and also presented the project and its findings to EU stakeholders at the CERIS conference in Brussels. [link]
Professor Mark Davis
Publications
Davis M (2022) After Christchurch: Alt-right Discourse and Ideology in Australia and the Platformisation of Extremism. Journal of Intercultural Studies. Routledge. [link]
Associate Professor Julian Droogan
Publications
Hutchinson, J., Droogan, J., Waldek, L., and Ballsun-Stanton, B. (2022). “Violent Extremist and REMVE Online Ecosystems: Ecological Characteristics for Future Research and Conceptualization.” Resolve Network Research Brief, August 2022. [link]
Droogan, J., Waldek, L., Ballsun-Stanton, B., and Hutchinson, J. (2022). “Mapping a Social Media Ecosystem: Outlinking on Gab & Twitter Amongst the Australian Far-right Milieu.” Resolve Network Research Report, September 2022. [link]
Hutchinson, J., and Droogan, J. (2022). “Far-right ‘Reactions’: A Comparison of Austrlaian and Canadian Far-right Extremist Groups on Facebook.” Behavioral Sciences on Terrorism and Political Aggression. [link]
Awards
Awarded a four-month research fellowship with the Department of Security Studies, Charles University, Prague, in early 2023. Julian will be working with their digital and cyber security team on issues of online violent extremism.
Mark Duckworth
Presentations
Dr Christine Horn and Mark Duckworth presented in December 2022 at the The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) 2022 Conference on “ The Trust flows project: The role of trust in developing community resilience and the collaborative state”.
Appointments
Mark Duckworth was appointed as a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA). IPAA is Australia’s peak body for those working in public administration and the public purpose sector. [link]
Professor Amparo Pamela Fabe
Publications
Scott Romaniuk, Christian Kaunert and Amparo Pamela Fabe. Handbook of Countering Terrorist and Criminal Financing, Routledge, UK, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.
Scott Romaniuk, Stewart Webb, Animesh Roul and Amparo Pamela Fabe. Handbook of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: A Global Survey of Threats, Tactics and Characteristics.
CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, US, 2022.
Fabe, Amparo Pamela, “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, 2022.
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.
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.
Fabe, Amparo Pamela Fabe. “Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Financial Technology: Assessing Philippine Risks and Evaluating Responses.” National Security Review, January 2021.
Presentations
"Watchdogs or Lapdogs: Civil Society’s Role in Protecting Digital Sovereignty", ISTR 2022, University Malaysia Sabah, 7-9 December 2022.
Professor Michele Grossman
Grants
‘Understanding the drivers and motivators of extremist violence’. A/Prof. Stephane Shepherd*, Prof. Michele Grossman*, Prof. Michele Pathe, Prof. Paul Gill.* Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project, 2023-2026. $864,680. (*=AVERT members)
‘Local CVE capacity addressing far-right extremism in Australian rural and regional communities: Protections, vulnerabilities, needs and resources’. Prof. Michele Grossman*, Dr Mario Peucker*, Dr Hass Dellal.* Department of Home Affairs, 2023-2024. $217,647. (*=AVERT members)
Publications
M. Grossman and H. A. Hellyer (eds.) (in press, 2023) Rethinking Religion and Radicalization: Terrorism and Violence Twenty Years after 9/11. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
V. Gerrand and M. Grossman (2022) ‘Understanding the experiences of families of radicalised Muslim youth in Australia: Implications for social work practice’ in L. Robinson and M. R. Gardee (eds.), Radicalisation, Extremism and Social Work Practice: Minority Muslim Youth in the West, London: Routledge, 92-111.
Appointments
Appointed as Associate Editor of Terrorism and Political Violence, August 2022, for a two-year term.
Lydia Khalil
Publications
Rise of the Extreme Right: The New Global Extremism and the Threat to Democracy, Lowy Institute, 2022. [link]
Grants
CVESC Grant success CRISIS POINTS: Addressing violent extremism during times of disaster and crisis, Department of Home Affairs CVESC Funding.
Projects
Digital Threats to Democracy Project, Lowy Institute and NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. [link]
Dr Sylvia Laksmi
Publications
Terrorism Financing in Southeast Asia: Transformations, Continuities and Challenges, Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses (CTTA) Vol. 14 September 2022, Singapore: RSIS-Nanyang Technological University. [link]
The Growth of Financial Technology in Indonesia: Implications for Terrorism Financing, International Annals of Criminology , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , July 2022 , pp. 162 – 181. [link]
Safeguarding the Philippine FinTech Sector from Terrorism Financing, July 31st 2022, Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies. [link]
Publication of Financing and Facilitation of FTFs And Returnees in Southeast Asia Report, January 13th 2022, Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering. [link]
Media appearances
Development Intelligence Lab, “Terrorist financing laws are preventing basic humanitarian assistance and often abused for political gain. What must change?,” November 17th 2022. [link]
Amy Chew, “Indonesian militant group’s plot to ‘overthrow’ Jokowi may be far-fetched, but officials warn NII could be ‘launching pad’ for terror,” South China Morning Post, April 24th, 2022. [link]
Presentations
Presentation on October 13th 2022, ADI Public Policy Forum: Twenty years on from the Bali Bombings: Reflections on two decades of transformative challenges and cooperation in countering terrorism, as a speaker with Mr Roger Noble (Australia's Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism), hosted by Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation.
Presentation on October 4th 2022, at the Focus Group Discussion on PESTEL Analysis Sectoral Risk Assessment (SRA) 2022, “Challenges to the Financing of Violent Extremism and Radicalisation in Indonesia, hosted by the Executive Office of President of Republic of Indonesia.
Presentation on August 30th 2022, EU – Indonesia National Training on P/CVE for Instructors of Indonesian Migrant Workers – Pre-Departure Orientation, hosted by the Indonesian National Counterterrorism Agency, European Union and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Presentation on March 3rd 2022, at NATO Building Integrity Workshop “Building Integrity And Women, Peace And Security: Nexus And Mutually Reinforcing Impact” hosted by the NATO Building Integrity (BI) and the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) within the framework of the project on “Integrating the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS) into the NATO Building Integrity Work.”
Professor Kristina Murphy
Grants
ARC Discovery Scheme Grant 2023: DP230100780 Understanding the emerging threat of conspiracy-fuelled extremism. Awarded to Kristina Murphy (Griffith University), Adrian Cherney, (UQ) & Keiran Hardy (Griffith University) - $454,000.
Publications
Murphy, K., McCarthy, M., Sargeant, E. & Williamson, H. (2022). COVID-19 conspiracies, trust in authorities and duty to comply with social distancing restrictions. International Criminology, doi:10.1007/s43576-021-00042-x.
McCarthy, M., Murphy, K., Sargeant, E., & Williamson, H. (2022). Examining the relationship between conspiracy theories and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: A mediating role for perceived health threats, trust, and anomie? Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 22(1), 106-129.
Presentations
Murphy, K. (2022). The impact of COVID Policing on Police Legitimacy and Public Defiance. Invited Keynote at: National Forum on Managing Organised Disruptive Activity, Townsville, Australia, 27-28th September 2022.
Awards
Kristina Murphy: The Australian Research Awards Top Researchers 2022. Australia’s research field leader in Criminology, Criminal Justice and Policing. Awarded to the individual whose papers published in the top 20 journals in that field (determined by the H-index of journals) over the past five years have had the most citations by other researchers. This is a measure which filters for both quality and impact.
Dr Alexandra Phelan
Publications
Veilleux-Lepage, Y., Phelan, A., & Lokmanoglu, A. (2022). "Gendered radicalisation and ‘everyday practices’: An analysis of extreme right and Islamic State women-only forums" European Journal of International Security, 1-16. [link]
Paterson, J. and Phelan, A. (2022), Gendered Narratives, the Online-Offline Nexus and the Far-Right in Australia, Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET). [link]
Phelan, A. and Gayatri, I. (2022), Gendered Online Messaging, Women's Insecurities and the Impact of COVID on Violent Extremism Throughout the ASEAN Region, Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET). [link]
Phelan, A., Lokmanoglu, A., Veilleux-Lepage Y (2022), Online Platforms as Gendered Sites: Why We Should Pay Attention to Women-Only Forums, Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET). [link]
Dr Matteo Vergani
Publications
Vergani, M., Martinez-Arranz, A., Scrivens, R., Orellana, L. (2022), Hate speech in a Telegram conspiracy channel during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, «Social Media and Society»
Vergani, M., Mansouri, F., Orellana, L. (2022) Terrorism concern and persistence of negative attitudes towards Islam and Muslims, «Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology»
Media appearances
“US LGBT nightclub shooting shows why Australia must reform hate crime laws” The Conversation, 23 November 2022. [link]
Conference presentations
“A new scale to measure Allport’s scale of prejudice: the Prejudice Motivated Behavioural Intentions (PMBI) scale” (M. Vergani, K. O’Brien, T. Diallo) at AVERT Research Symposium, 21-22 November 2022.
Dr Helen Young
Publications
Young, Helen and Stephanie Downes. 2022. “Popular fiction and white extremism: neo-Nazi ideology and medievalist crime fiction,” Literature Compass. [link]
Young, Helen and Geoff M. Boucher. 2022. “Authoritarian Politics and Conspiracy Fictions: the Case of QAnon.” Humanities 11 (3). [link]
Media appearances
Interviewed, “Video Games and Political Extremism.” 2SER radio, Sydney, 17 November 2022.
Young, Helen. “Extremists use Videogames to Recruit Vulnerable Youth. Here’s what Parents and Gamers Need to Know.” The Conversation, 10 November 2022. [link]
Young, Helen. “The Rings of Power is suffering a racist backlash for casting actors of colour – but Tolkien’s work has always attracted white supremacists,” The Conversation, 8 September 2022 [link]
Interviewed for and quoted in Nicola Heath, “Alt-right groups are targeting young video gamers - and finding a culture where extremist views can flourish,” ABC, 10 August 2022. [link]
Conference presentations
“Knights and Vikings: Extremist Icons,” Critical Medievalisms lecture series, Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany, 8th December 2022.
Andrew Zammit
Publications
"Composite Violent Extremism: a radicalization pattern changing the face of terrorism", Lawfare, 22 November 2022 (co-authored with Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Emelie Chace-Donahue and Madison Urban). [link]
"What strategic competition means for counterterrorism", in Counterterrorism Yearbook 2022, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 24 November 2022. [link]