The 5 October special meeting of the Council of Australian Governments focused on security and counterterrorism. Premiers and chief ministers agreed to establish the National Facial Biometric Matching Capability and signed the Intergovernmental Agreement on …
In his much-acclaimed 1970 book, Why men rebel, Ted R. Gurr postulated that political violence could be explained by looking at social psychological factors. Gurr’s theory about political activism, and specifically political violence, centred on …
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has described the city of Marawi, in Mindanao, as a candidate for becoming the Raqqa of Southeast Asia. He has authorised the dispatch of Australian military trainers (not special forces, as …
Since it was formed by Mohammed Yusuf in the early 2000s, Boko Haram, or Jama’a Ahl as-Sunna Li-da’wa wa-al Jihad (roughly translated from Arabic as ‘people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings …
In August, a Jakarta court jailed 28-year-old Dian Yulia Novi for seven-and-a-half years for plotting to carry out a suicide attack outside the Presidential Palace during the changing of the guard, an event that is …
It’s slowly becoming clear that as horrific as the Barcelona attack was, it could have been much worse. The cell was planning to use a homemade explosive device to kill hundreds at landmarks across the …
On Sunday 20 August as the world was coming to grips with the Barcelona terror attacks, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unveiled Australia’s first national strategy for protecting crowded places from terrorism. According to the PM, …
There are two principal foreign actors operating in the Sahel: the EU and the United States. President Obama took considerable interest in Africa, just like his predecessor George W. Bush who allocated billions of dollars …
It was remarkable that the first foreign trip taken by newly elected French President Macron was to Mali to meet French troops undertaking an anti-insurgency/terrorism operation in the north of the country (within days, …
The French presidential election due on 23 April has failed to ignite much interest in the English language media, even though it represents a major political upheaval, with establishment candidates such as Nicolas Sarkozy, Alain …
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces several pressing issues over the next few years, many of which are linked to his commitment to revising Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. Under what’s known as the …
The recent peace talks at Astana in Kazakhstan between the Assad regime and a select group of rebels underlined the Assad regime’s approach to the conflict and its resolution. The regime continued as it had …