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Exploring emerging criminal and security threats

We critically examine government policy and strategy, particularly regarding the military, policing, cyber security and organised crime, among other key issues.

Research areas

Our high-impact research is published in leading international academic and scholarly publications. We also directly engage with law enforcement, including agencies such as:

  • NSW and Victoria Police
  • the NSW Crime Commission
  • the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers.

Our research strengths include:

Researchers in this area pursue a range of different projects related to Indo-Pacific and global strategic trends.

These include the geopolitics of China’s rise; the role of the United States in Asia; the challenges and prospects for Taiwan’s emerging strategic position; the ‘soft power’ potential in Central and South Asia; terrorism and insurgency in Asia; nuclear proliferation; conflict on the Korean Peninsula; military modernisation, defence industry and “arms racing” in Asia; desertion in civil wars; and exploring the influence of strategic theory in Western defence decision-making.

Key staff
PhD students
Current
  • Ryosuke Hanada, Search for Strategy, prosperity, and redemption: Japan’s Postwar Engagement with Pacific Nations.
  • Maxine Co, Bureaucratic Politics, Foreign Policy Behaviour, and the Pursuit of State Security in the Philippines.
Completed
  • Nell Bennett,  Inside Insurgency: The Decision-Making Process of ETA
  • Jon Cottam, Why Military Capable Governments Use Private Military Contractors
  • Andrew Henshaw, Understanding Insurgent Resilience: The Comparative Robustness of Familial and Meritocratic Insurgent Organisations
  • Abdullah Phairoosh, Intelligence-Led Policing: Interpretation, Implementation and Impact
  • Malkanthi Hettiarachchi, Radicalization and De-radicalization: The Tamil Tiger Case Study
  • Jeanne Marie Hoffman,  Alternative Futures of China: A Six Pillars Analysis
  • Khuram Iqbal, Evolution of Suicide Terrorism: A Case Study of Pakistan
Masters of Research students
Completed
  • Arif Ahmad, Framing Taliban in Pakistan's Elite Press: Before and After US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
  • Sahely Ferdous, Community Engagement in Curbing Violent Extremism and Radicalization: In the Bangladesh Context
  • Shahjada Akhter, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Strategic Implications for Pakistan
  • Richard James Cleverly, Shifting US-China Policy Postures: Options for Australia
Research projects and outputs
  • Lavina Lee "Australia and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific: A Strategy for the Defence of a 'Rules-Based Order" in The Indo-Pacific Theatre: Strategic Visions and Frameworks, (London: Routledge, 2023).
  • Dalbir Ahlawat and Mark S. Cogan, “Can Small Island States Escape China’s Influence? The Cases of Sri Lanka and Fiji”, Geopolitics, 2023,  https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2023.2174852
  • Courtney J. Fung, “China’s Use of Rhetorical Adaptation in Development of a Global Cyber Order: a case study of the norm of the protection of the public core of the internet,” Journal of Cyber Policy, 2023, DOI: 10.1080/23738871.2023.2178946.
  • Yves- Heng Lim, 'The fragility of general deterrence: the United States and China in maritime East Asia,' Comparative Strategy, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1080/01495933.2022.2039006.
  • Adam Lockyer, Foreign Intervention, Warfare, and Civil Wars, (London: Routledge, 2019).

The terrorism and violent extremism studies program at Macquarie University is unique in Australia. It serves to educate and upskill new and existing professionals in the areas of countering terrorism, preventing/countering violent extremism, and online internet-based extremism. It draws significant numbers of international professionals from South and Southeast Asia through Australian Commonwealth scholarships. Sustained engagement with Government and industry makes the program a national resource, having guided the construction of the NSW’s premier Countering Violent Extremism program (COMPACT: funded to $20 million, and engaged over 20,000 young Australians), advised government after the Christchurch far-right attack, and helped frame the NSW government’s strategy for addressing violent extremism associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to educating and informing Australian and regional professionals, the program provides a research pathway for HDR students, many of whom come from industry.

The purpose of the program is to enhance and expand the understanding of terrorism, counter terrorism, and the wider problem of violent extremism by developing and delivering the highest quality research and teaching. Academic units provide exposure to research in the field of terrorism and violent extremism studies, conceptual knowledge in this field, and practical strategies in countering extremism. A deep scholarly understanding is blended with an appreciation of the political, practitioner, and policy context within which solutions are implemented.

The goal of the terrorism and violent extremism studies program is to continue to deliver the lead Australian Postgraduate terrorism studies qualification, and to continue to serve the community through practical research-led engagement. We aim to enable our students and graduates to think critically and creatively about how terrorism and extremism pose threats to social and national security (domestically and internationally), how they contribute in a networked way to wider cyber and online security challenges, and how they can be addressed in an ethical and effective manner by government, industry, and community.

Key staff
PhD students
Current
  • Jade Hutchinson, Examining Far-Right Extremist Ecosystems
  • Stephanie Scott-Smith, Statelessness Narratives in Jihadist Propaganda
  • Shane Dennis, Innovation Versus Longevity in Terrorist Organisations
  • Muneer Hamaid, The Role of Audiences in Interpreting Violent Extremist Messaging
Completed
  • Moinul Khan, The Islamic Resurgence: Why Bangladesh is a Case Apart
  • Khuram Iqbal, Evolution of Suicide Terrorism: A Case Study of Pakistan
  • Simon Henry, An Investigation into the Australian Survivalist Subculture
  • Malkanthi Hettiarachchi, Radicalisation and Deradicalisation: A Tamil Tiger Case Study
Masters of Research students
Completed
  • Jana Vanderwee, Testing the Link Between Conspiracy Theories and Violent Extremism: A Linguistic Coding Approach to Far-Right Shooter Manifestos
  • Joanna Wong, The Terrorism (High Risk Offenders) Act 2017 (NSW): An Evaluation of Factors that Contribute to a Finding of ‘Unacceptable Risk
  • Adebimpe Anita MacGregor, Investigating the Roots and Violent Escalation of Boko Haram from an Islamist Movement to Terrorism
  • Emad Al-Hammadin, A Comparative Analysis of Deradicalization Programs in Arab States and Western States
  • Katalin Petho-Kiss, Understanding the Risk of Chemical and Biological Terrorism
  • Sarah Holmes, Australia’s Local Government and Counter Terrorism in the Contemporary Terrorism Environment: Risks and Opportunities
  • Alannah Cooper, The Media and Labelling in the Context of Australia’s Terrorism Environment: Social Media Responses from Muslim Groups
  • Shandon Harris-Hogan, How to Successfully Work with Violent Extremists? Understanding Australia’s Countering Violent Extremism Early Intervention Program
  • Nell Bennett, Foreign Fighter Motivation in Civil Wars A Behaviouralist Approach to International  Volunteerism in the Spanish Civil War
Research projects and outputs
2023: Marie Curie Doctoral Network EU-GLOCTER

Funding: Marie Sktodowska-Curie - 2.8 Million Euros
The global EU-GLOCTER network consists of universities and practitioner organisations, led by Dublin City University, Ireland. The funded network will  support the international exchange and professional development of 15 European Union PhD students engaged in studies into terrorism over three years. The project will develop counterterrorism interactions between 'global' and 'local' iterations, research, and practice. The global network will bring together academic and professional industry stakeholders to create new international cultures and practices in countering terrorism, and develop mutual learnings.

2022: Racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist (REMVE) Online Research – Australian Ecosystems

Funding: The United States Institute for Peace – $49,000
This project conducts the first cross-social media platform examination of how Australian far-right extremists communicate and interact with international extremist networks. Using data from Twitter and Gab, it generates network maps illustrating transnational far-right extremist ecosystems. Read the findings report here.

2021: An examination of Australian Violent Extremism in the context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Funding: NSW Department of Communities and Justice - $150,000
This project seeks to continue the examination of online extremism in NSW and Australia in the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic and its broad social and economic consequences. It uses data from online and offline sources to chart the spread of online right-wing extremist themes and narratives both online and within wider mainstream Australian society.

Select corporate partners
  • NSW Police
  • Federal Attorney General’s Department
  • Multicultural NSW
  • Hedaya Institute, Abu Dhabi
  • Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
  • All Together Now

Our staff and fellows in the intelligence stream draw on both their professional experience and academic expertise to produce research that is relevant to both scholars and practitioners. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of intelligence studies, our researchers work in disciplines across the social sciences and humanities, including political science,  history, and population health. We have a strong focus on the intelligence communities of the Five Eyes nations, but our regional expertise also extends to the Africa, Europe, and the Indo-Asia-Pacific, making our research global in scope. While grounded in the study of national security, our focus on transferable methods and processes ensures our research is also relevant to other intelligence and investigative fields in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors.

Areas of interest
  • Intelligence management and organisation studies
  • Intelligence policy and reform
  • Cyber intelligence, including cyber espionage
  • Covert action, espionage, denial and deception
  • Information superiority and decision advantage
  • Intelligence and climate security
  • Public health intelligence
  • Workforce development, including diversity within intelligence communities
  • Intelligence tradecraft
  • Critical intelligence studies and intelligence history
  • Women in intelligence
  • Intelligence ethics, accountability and oversight
  • Intelligence in popular culture
  • Intelligence and the media
  • Intelligence education
Key staff
PhD students
Current
  • Renate Atkins, Intelligence Tradecraft ad Resistance in the Abwehr, 1933-1945
Research projects and outputs
  • Patrick F. Walsh, James Ramsey and Ausma Bernot, “Health security intelligence capabilities post COVID-19: Resisting the passive “new normal” within the five eyes,” Intelligence and National Security, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2023.2231196
  • Brian Cuddy and Fredrik Logevall, eds.. The Vietnam War in the Pacific World, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022)
  • Tshepo Gwatiwa, The African Union and African agency in international politics (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)
  • Melanie Brand, “Intelligence, warning and policy: the Johnson Administration and the 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia,” Cold War History, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2020.1752675

Our research is focused on understanding how state and non-state actors use the cyber domain for crime, surveillance and offensive action.  We examine the motivations, methods, techniques and behaviours of these actors.  We also consider countermeasures from public and private entities.

Key staff
PhD students
Current
  • Jennifer Williams, The Role of Perceived Control in Detecting and Responding to Cyber-Attacks
Research projects and outputs
  • Evolution of cognitive warfare and its effect on decision advantage and information superiority in light of specific instances of covert action and information operations including the Russian involvement in the 2016 US election campaign and its aftermath.
  • The prevalence of Online Child Sexual Abuse (OCSA) in Vietnam and measures to reduce its effect.  (PhD project)
  • Taking a target centric approach to intelligence collection and analysis of an adversary using the Bitcoin ecosystem for the purposes of Ransomware transactions.  (PhD Project)
  • Surveillance Capitalism:  Tactics of influence by the Social Media Giants.  (MRes project)

Criminology at Macquarie University explores the dynamic relationship between crime, criminal organisations and state actors. Our department has a critically focused research agenda that combines theoretical knowledge with innovative empirical research. We are particularly interested in new and emerging criminal threats and public policy responses from domestic and international policing agencies. The main themes with which staff are currently engaged are social finance, elite deviance, gender, police and crime control in Australia, the political economy of organised crime and its links to terrorism in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions, and the internal governance of criminal organisations.

Key staff
PhD students
Current
  • Mansoor Swat, Health Behind Bars: A Sociological Analysis of the Health of Inmates in the Prisons of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
  • Jaclyn Spicer, Organised Crime, Terrorism and Shifting Power Structures in Eurasia
  • Nhung Luong, The Investigation and Prosecution of Online Child Sexual Exploitation in Vietnam
Completed
  • Vince Hurley, Economics of Policing; Policing in the Age of Austerity
Masters of Research students
Completed
  • Ashleigh Shankar, The Darker Side of War: Examining the role that social abjection and stigma play in wartime rape.
  • Hannah Gately, Russian Organised Crime and Ransomware as a Service: State cultivated cybercrime.
  • Hussain Gowhor, The Identification of Effectiveness Criteria for Financial Intelligence Tools in Early Detection of Terrorist Financing Activities.
Research projects and outputs
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E: Department of Security Studies and Criminology