Macquarie University NSW 2109
Finding solutions to real world security challenges
Australia’s leading academic centre of teaching and research in applied and multidisciplinary security studies.
Our researchers leverage their professional and academic expertise to analyse the political, practitioner and policy contexts in which these solutions are applied.
While grounded in the study of national security, our focus on transferable methods and processes ensures our research is also relevant to practitioners and scholars in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors across the world.
Areas of research
Our key research themes are:
- Australian maritime security
- Chinese foreign policy
- counter terrorism and countering violent extremism
- cyber security
- hostage diplomacy and wrongful detention
- Indo-Pacific geopolitics
- intelligence
- online extremism and disinformation
- strategic and defence studies.
Information operations in the Asia-Pacific
- Funder: Defence Innovation Network
- Project leads: Professor Julian Droogan, Jennifer Williams.
This project looks to understand information operation strategies in Australia's region and inform detection, model the spread and effectiveness of these operations including tipping points, and build a software prototype dashboard for future use.
Assessing China’s grey zone tactics and Australia’s countervailing options
- Funder: Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grants Program
- Project leads: Dr Dalbir Ahlawat, Associate Professor Courtney Fung, Dr Roger Huang, Dr Yves Lim, Associate Professor Adam Lockyer
This project examines how, and under what conditions, actors in the Indo-Pacific region have been able to resist or defeat China’s attempt to alter the status quo using grey zone tactics (ie efforts ‘below the threshold of war’).
Extended deterrence in the Indo-Pacific in an era of great power competition
- Funder: National Bureau of Asian Research
- Project lead: Associate Professor Lavina Lee
This project assess the cumulative impact of three trends – the evolution of the Indo-Pacific geopolitical landscape, recurring doubts about US alliance commitments, and domestic political debates on nuclear armament – on the sustainability of US extended deterrence and nuclear restraint in Australia.