AVERT Newsletter

NOVEMBER 2023

Co-convenors’ Message

The second half of 2023 for AVERT has been just as engaging and productive as the first. This has included the signature annual event on the AVERT calendar – our annual international research symposium. This year’s theme was “Democracy, Dissent and Countering Violent Extremism”, which featured exceptional keynotes by Professor Joel Busher and Professor Donatella Della Porta, more than thirty presentations, and over 150 participants, both in person and online, over a fascinating three days. The Symposium featured a range of practitioner and research-based papers and panels exploring the multifaceted aspects and latest research evidence informing this topic. Links to the presentations and proceedings can be found below. We are thankful for the continued support of the Australian Department of Home Affairs, whose funding allows us to continue delivering this Symposium and other engagement activities, and also to the student volunteers who this year, as every year, help the Symposium run as smoothly as possible. We are also pleased to have extended our MOU with the Department of Home Affairs to provide research and national capacity building activities for countering violent extremism and terrorism into 2025.

Several AVERT research members were invited to Ottawa, Canada in May to participate in Public Safety Canada’s “CVE Mega Week,” a 5-day international gathering of researchers and practitioners from a wide range of countries working to combat violent extremism. Professor Michele Grossman, Dr Emily Corner, Dr Matteo Vergani and Lydia Khalil all presented on their latest research. AVERT also deepened its relationship with the 5RD (Five Eyes Research and Development) Network – a transnational government research network that supports many of the peak academic research networks in Five Eyes countries, including AVERT. The focus of discussions this year was on how we can best develop and strengthen international research collaborations across these academic networks relating to terrorism and violent extremism.

The second half of the year also brought a fascinating collection of presentations from both Australian and international experts as part of our ongoing AVERT Webinar series. In case you missed them, links to the webinars are found below. And we were delighted to host Dr David Malet from American University as an AVERT Visiting Fellow in July. David provided a really fascinating seminar presentation on violent extremism and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and is our second AVERT Visiting Fellow, following on from Professor Paul Thomas’s visit in the same capacity in March 2023.

Hellos and goodbyes

We are also pleased to announce that the exceptional Dr Nell Bennett has taken on the role of AVERT Coordinator following the departure of Dr Benjamin Freeman, who served as AVERT Coordinator for two years. Nell brings a wealth of experience, energy and expertise to the role and we are lucky to have her. Ben, who has now moved on to an exciting full-time position with government, has been an invaluable and valued member of the AVERT Network. He has been deeply instrumental to the operations and growth of AVERT and we are indebted to him for all his hard work and dedication.

We are also excited to announce that we have created a new role within the AVERT team to focus on growing the next generation of terrorism and violent extremism studies scholars. We are thrilled to introduce Haily Tran, a doctoral candidate at Deakin University, who has recently come on as the AVERT Network’s HDR (Higher Degrees by Research) coordinator. We are really looking forward to Haily’s ideas and efforts for engaging with the next generation of researchers in this field, and to hearing from HDR and early career researchers in the field about how AVERT can best support their interests and needs.

Finally, in 2024, Professor Michele Grossman AM will be stepping back from her role as Co-convenor of AVERT after six years in the role. Michele founded the AVERT Research Network in 2018, generously supported by Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute and the Department of Home Affairs. Since 2022 she has co-convened the Network with Lydia Khalil, who has demonstrated her amazing capacity for and commitment to the leadership of AVERT through the innovation, vision, breadth and expertise she has brought to growing AVERT’s reach and impact. Lydia will serve as AVERT Convenor of the Network starting in 2024, and Michele will stay closely involved in AVERT through membership of the Executive Committee.

Honours and awards

A number of our research members were bestowed with well-deserved honours. AVERT Co-Convenor Professor Michele Grossman was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in Australia’s 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List for significant service to tertiary education, particularly to research and to social welfare initiatives, a prestigious and fitting acknowledgement of all her contributions. Congratulations, Michele!

Warm congratulations also to Dr Levi West, who has received the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI) Best Doctoral Dissertation on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, for his thesis titled ‘Violent Propaganda: Violence, Communication and Technology—The Strategic Logic of Terrorism’.

As usual, our research members have continued to produce high quality publications, research projects and public engagement across the second half of the year. Thank you to those AVERT members who have sent us their latest news featured below. Keep scrolling for more detail about the latest AVERT activities.

AVERT will be taking its usual summer hiatus in December and January, and we look forward to coming back refreshed and engaged in February 2024 for another exiting year ahead! Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season for the year’s end break that is just around the corner, and of course a happy and healthy New Year in 2024.

Professor Michele Grossman AM
AVERT Co-convenor

Lydia Khalil
AVERT Co-convenor

AVERT International Research Symposium 2023

The Symposium featured two eminent scholars, Professor Donatella Della Porta and Professor Joel Busher, whose keynote presentations illuminated on the dynamic challenges facing democracies today. Their contributions generated many thoughtful conversations and further points of inquiry.

As usual, the 2023 AVERT Research Symposium served as a dynamic platform for Australian and international researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to converge and collaborate. Together, we examined cutting-edge research and practice perspectives, enabling us to consider more nuanced and effective approaches to countering violent extremism.

All Symposium sessions are now available to view here.

The 2023 AVERT International Research Symposium was held at Deakin Downtown, in Melbourne on Tuesday 26 September to Thursday 28 September. This year’s theme, “Democracy, Dissent and Countering Violent Extremism”, provoked vibrant discussions on the evolving landscape of countering violent extremism (CVE) in democratic societies.

Symposium presenters tackled the question of whether P/CVE policies and programs are equipped to address the multifaceted challenges posed by anti-democratic social movements. Participants engaged in discussions on the deeper roots and how potential remedies for these challenges may transcend conventional CVE frameworks and involve whole of society approaches. One of the pivotal inquiries was how to distinguish between legitimate democratic dissent and extremism and how to strike the balance between safeguarding the right to protest and preserving social cohesion and security all while making these decisions based on democratic principles.

AVERT Engagement with Public Safety Canada “CVE Mega Week”

AVERT members Professor Michele Grossman AM, Dr Emily Corner, Dr Matteo Vergani and Lydia Khalil presented their research at the annual CVE ‘Mega Week’ conference run by the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence. The Canada Centre leads the Government of Canada's efforts to counter radicalization to violence. Mega Week is an annual event to bring practitioners, researchers, academics, other governmental stakeholders together for knowledge dissemination, networking, and showcasing services. It was an important opportunity to showcase Australian research to a wider international audience.

New HDR Coordinator

We are very happy to announce that Haily Tran has taken on the role of HDR Coordinator for the AVERT Research Network. This new role reflects the AVERT Network’s commitment to featuring new and emerging researchers in terrorism and violent extremism. Haily Tran is a mixed methods researcher in the final year of her PhD at Deakin University. She is examining online radicalisation, masculinities, and the far-right. Haily has a background in psychology and has worked in the public medical industry for 15 years. You can learn more about Haily here.

Farewell to Outgoing AVERT Coordinator, Dr Ben Freeman

It was with great regret that we bid farewell to AVERT Coordinator Ben Freeman in September. Ben was an invaluable member of the AVERT Team and will be sorely missed. We are grateful for Ben’s dedication, diligence, and for the lasting impact that he has made on the Network. We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome our new AVERT Coordinator, Dr Nell Bennett, who has recently taken over the role. Nell is your new point of contact for administrative matters related to the Network.

AVERT Seminar/Webinar Series: Associate Professor David Malet and Dr Vivian Gerrand

The AVERT Seminar/Webinar series has featured important and timely research on current issues in P/CVE. In August we were privileged to host Associate Professor David Malet from the American University, Washington DC. Professor Malet discussed the impact of foreign volunteers in the Ukraine war and their role as potential security challenges.

Watch the full recording of David’s talk here.

Our October webinar featured Dr Vivian Gerrand. Dr. Gerrand presented a fascinating discussion on the online conspiritual wellness influencers, who have become trusted sources of information in the face of prevalent distrust in governments and institutions. Dr Gerrand examined what we can learn from these wellness movements, and the extent to which they might be viewed as partners in, rather than antagonists of, public health and wellbeing. Watch Vivian’s presentation here.

November webinar: Systematic review of the reliability and validity of risk tools for violent radicalization: Is the evidence base solid?

The November AVERT webinar featured a discussion with Professor Sébastien Brouillette-Alarie of the School of Criminology at the University of Montreal. Professor Brouillette-Alarie posed an important question: do violent radicalization risk tools predict the outcomes they are purposed to predict? Professor Brouillette-Alarie and colleagues systematically reviewed the available evidence on the reliability and validity of violent radicalization risk tools, focusing on TRAP-18, ERG22+, MLG, and VERA. Even though encouraging results were found concerning the internal consistency and inter-rater reliability of violent radicalization risk tools, no studies of their predictive validity were found.

To learn more and view the recording, click here.

Up coming event: Where next with Counter-Terrorism Governance, Policy and Law in Australia: lessons from the past two decades

It is over 20 years since the governance, legal and policy architecture and legislation in which Australia’s approach to counter-terrorism was put in place. This has taken place at both a Commonwealth and State Government level. Since then over 50 pieces of anti-terror legislation have been introduced to Parliament.

At the 2005 meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), the Prime Minister and the Premiers agreed that any strengthened counter-terrorism laws must be:

Necessary
effective against terorism; and
contain appropriate safeguards against abuse, such as parliamentary and judicial review, and be exercised in a way that is evidence based, intelligence-led and proportionate.

To what extent have these principles been met? Are the policy settings and laws developed over the past 20 years designed to deal with current challenges and how has the political environment shaped them?

The purpose of this panel is to discuss and review these legal, administrative and policy setting and explore whether there needs to be a rethink of their architecture.

SPEAKER DETAILS

Panelists include:

· Mark Duckworth, Senior Research Fellow Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies, ADI

· Rita Jabri Markwell (Birchgrove Legal). Adviser to Australian Muslim Advocacy Network

· Dr Andrew Zammit, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Victoria University

· Dr Anne-Marie Balbi, ADI

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This is an in-person event taking place at Deakin Burwood, C2.05.01. Please RSVP directly to mark.duckworth@deakin.edu.au

Member News

Media and Public Commentary

Shahram Akbarzadeh

‘Despite its inflammatory rhetoric, Iran is unlikely to attack Israel. Here’s why’, The Conversation.