Terrorism
The militarisation of motherhood: repatriating ISIS’s Western women
The Australian government’s decision to repatriate more than 20 women and 40 children from camps in Syria is an overdue policy change, representing a stark rhetorical shift. In…
Enemies of education are back in Malala’s hometown?
The terrorist attack on a school van in the Swat district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this week confirms the return of the extremist groups that had imposed their…
Right-wing extremists: the danger not of bombs but ballots
Book Review: Rise of the Extreme Right: The New Global Extremism and the Threat to Democracy, by Lydia Khalil (Penguin, 2022).
Far-right terrorism and extremism…
Bali 2002: When global terrorism first came close to home
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost twenty years since the night of 12 October 2002. The deadly impact of extremism will always be with the survivors and those who lost…
Twenty years after Bali
Over summer in Australia we’re featuring selected articles from the past year. This was originally published 14 September 2022.
The horrified reaction of many Australians…
Understanding global right-wing extremism
Book Review: Rise of the Extreme Right: The New Global Extremism and the Threat to Democracy, by Lydia Khalil (Penguin, 2022).
The rise of the global extreme right has been a…
The very personal legacy of Ayman al-Zawahiri
News that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed last week by US precision drone strike caught me by surprise. Zawahiri has been a fixture of the jihadist scene for decades,…
Killing the al-Qaeda chief leaves endless questions
Killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US drone attack inside Taliban-ruled Afghanistan at the weekend has been billed as a major win by the United States…
The many consequences of a clear blue day on 11 September, 2001
The 9/11 attacks – four separate coordinated strikes by al-Qaeda using passenger planes as weapons of mass destruction – were the deadliest and most consequential terrorist events…