Border security lessons for Australia from Europe’s Schengen experience

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This Strategic Insights report explores Calum Jeffray’s key observations in his report Fractured Europe: the Schengen Area and European border security and analyses them through an Australian and then an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) border security lens.

It also provides recommendations for Australian border security policymakers based on the lessons learned from the Schengen experience. It examines the implications of Schengen for ASEAN member states in the development of the ASEAN Economic Community.

Crowded and complex: The changing geopolitics of the South Pacific

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Australia faces an increasingly crowded and complex geopolitical environment in the South Pacific. While the most important external powers in the region have traditionally been Australia, New Zealand, the US and France, a number of new powers are increasingly active, most notably China, Russia, Indonesia, Japan and India. South Pacific states, particularly Papua New Guinea and Fiji, are emerging as regional powers to constrain Australian influence. South Pacific states are also becoming more active on the international stage, further taking them outside Australia’s and their other traditional partners’ sphere of influence.

The geopolitical environment in the South Pacific has implications for Australia’s strategic interest in ensuring stability, security and cohesion in the region. If Australia is going to ensure that it’s able to respond to the complex and crowded geopolitics of the South Pacific, it needs to prioritise the region in a clear, consistent and sustained way in its foreign and strategic policy planning.

Women, peace and security: the way forward

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The articles in this Strategic Insights paper, originally published on the ASPI Strategist website throughout March 2017, include analysis about what women, peace and security (WPS) means for Australia’s defence and national security. The authors of individual pieces are Elisabeth Buchan, Amanda Fielding, Jenny Lee, Brendan Nicholson, Sofia Patel, Lisa Sharland, Laura J Shepherd, Amy Sheridan, Leanne Smith and Jennifer Wittwer.

COUNTERTERRORISM YEARBOOK 2017

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This yearbook looks at those areas around the world where terrorism and counterterrorism (CT) are in greatest focus. Each chapter examines CT developments in 2016, including the terrorist threat being faced and how governments and others have approached CT through both policy and operations. Countries and regions covered include Australia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Turkey, UK, USA, Canada, Africa, Russia and China.

Through this first Counterterrorism Yearbook, in what will be an annual publication, we aim to promote understanding and contribute to shared knowledge of CT.

The authors of individual pieces are Anthony Bergin, Jacinta Carroll, Colin Clarke, Michael Clarke, Virginia Comolli, Greg Fealy, Fadi Hakura, Peter Jennings, Shashank Joshi, Lydia Khalil, Joseph Chinyong Liow, Olga Oliker, Raffaello Pantucci, Thomas Renard, Vern White, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The future of the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation: Indonesia’s chance to promote a new era of regional law enforcement cooperation

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For 13 years, the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC) has served as a regional rallying point for much-needed counterterrorism capacity development and cooperation.

Since its inception in 2004, with strong bilateral support from the Australian Government,1 JCLEC’s operating and donor environments have evolved considerably. The strong relationship between the Indonesian National Police (POLRI) and Australian Federal Police (AFP) that has raised and sustained JCLEC is in a state of decline. Regional partners and donors are now considering JCLEC’s future.

There are some big decisions to be made, the most pressing of which is whether JCLEC should become a truly regional body or an Indonesian Government institution.

The Sultanate of Women: Exploring female roles in perpetrating and preventing violent extremism

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This paper examines the appeal of Islamic State (IS) to Western women and explores how women can be employed in countering violent extremism (CVE) structures to prevent further involvement. It aims to deliver a comprehensive analysis for academics, policymakers and practitioners working in CVE program and policy design and implementation in order to bridge the gap between community development work and security and intelligence.

Two case studies of Australian women—Zehra Duman (a.k.a. Umm Abdullatif al-Australi) and Zaynab Sharrouf (a.k.a. Umm Hafs)—illustrate the appeal as well as the contradictions.

A series of recommendations suggests changes to existing CVE structures and their approaches to integrating, women.

Sofia Patel discusses the paper.

The American face of ISIS: Analysis of ISIS-related terrorism in the US March 2014–August 2016

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Contributors: Piper Mik, Sarah Starr, Ala Tineh, Walker Gunning & Jacinta Carroll

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is mobilising sympathisers in the US at rates much higher than seen for previous terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda.

To understand this new American face of ISIS, the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) study examined 112 cases of individuals who perpetrated ISIS-related offences, were indicted by the US Justice Department for such offences, or both, in the US between March 2014 and August 2016.

This is the first comprehensive analysis of ISIS-related cases to examine the profiles of indictees overall, as well as to identify characteristics associated with each of the offence types. The findings are striking, and provide a valuable contribution to understanding the contemporary face of ISIS-related terrorism in the US.

Detect, disrupt and deny: Optimising Australia’s counterterrorism financing system

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Detecting, disrupting and denying terrorist financing is vital to efforts to degrade terrorist organisations. This paper examines the nature of terrorist financing and the system used to counter this. Using examples, the paper analyses how terrorist organisations raise, move and use funds. While the focus is currently on Islamist terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), historical examples demonstrate how terrorism and terrorism financing are neither new phenomena nor dominated only by groups in the Middle East.

The paper examines the international and Australian systems for targeting terrorism financing.

Australia’s overall counter-terrorism financing (CTF) system is robust but could be enhanced and strengthened. The 84 recommendations in the government’s recent Review of Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism legislation is a good start to improving the CTF system but doesn’t go far enough in some cases.

This paper sets out recommendations on how the Australian Government could enhance Australia’s CTF system.

France and security in the Asia–Pacific: From the end of the first Indochina conflict to today

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France’s defence- and security-related activities in the Asia–Pacific are often underestimated, sometimes distorted or simply ignored. This paper surveys France’s growing presence in the Asia–Pacific from the Indochina War and efforts to resolve the Cambodian conflict, through to the country’s 21st century contributions driven by strategic engagement related to globalisation, new threats, multilateral regional cooperation and increasingly interconnected strategic zones.

Does France carry weight in the major strategic balance in the Asia–Pacific? The answer to this question is ‘No; not directly’. But if the question is whether France contributes to regional security and to the development of defence and security capabilities in a large number of countries in the Asia–Pacific, then the author believes that the answer is clearly a positive one.

For the right reasons, in the right ways (Part 1): a four-nation survey of information sharing about organised crime

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This special report examines how government, business and the community in four nations share information about organised crime. Its key finding is that the Australian Government, businesses and community as a whole must be open to new kinds of information sharing partnerships.

The field work involved over 80 interviews, including visits to or discussions about a range of information sharing mechanisms in Israel, the UK, the Netherlands and the US.

This is an abridged version of a report submitted to the Churchill Memorial Trust in June 2016.