Rodger Shanahan

Dr Rodger Shanahan

Biography

Publications

Dr Rodger Shanahan is a former Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute.

A former army officer, he had extensive service within the Parachute Battalion Group (PBG) and has had operational service with the UN in South Lebanon and Syria, with the PBG in East Timor, in Beirut during the 2006 war, and in Afghanistan. He was the former director of the Army's Land Warfare Studies Centre, and has also been posted to the Australian Embassies in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Dr Shanahan has MAs in International Relations and Middle East Studies from the ANU, and a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Sydney.

He is also a part-time member of the Refugee Review Tribunal. He has written numerous journal, media and policy articles, is a frequent commentator on Middle East issues for Australian and international media, has appeared as an expert witness for several terrorism trials in Australia and is the author of Clans, Parties and Clerics: the Shi’a of Lebanon.

Leave the Iran nuclear deal alone

It is difficult to see how the Administration can renege on JCPOA, but the damage may already have been done.

Syria: Momentum now firmly with Assad

If Assad's forces are re-imposing central control while defeating Islamic State, there's not much Washington can do about it.

Cutting a deal with Islamic State

A deal involving several hundred Islamic State fighters who vacated the rugged Lebanese-Syrian border area is yet another example, if any more were needed, of how complex this…

Trump’s Afghanistan strategy: Second and third legs need attention

Under Mattis, the military leg will be well planned and well executed but the diplomatic and economic legs also require appropriate staffing and focus over an extended period,

Five brutal truths about Islamist terrorism

Westerners in general remain a target, as do Shi’a and Sunni governments who Salafists believe are constraining their activities.

Perfidious New Zealand

The thing that puts New Zealand on the world map is rugby, and New Zealanders will do everything in their power to retain their rugby primacy.

Death of a Lebanese terrorist

The only person responsible for the death of his children was Khalid Sharrouf himself.

Riyadh’s Shia two-step

Gulf states have decided to try a carrot-based approach towards Iraq Shia leaders in attempting to blunt Iranian influence.

Some lessons from the foiled Sydney terror plot

There are both disturbing and perplexing elements to the Islamic State-supported terrorist plot to blow up an airliner departing from Sydney.

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