VOX-Pol’s Coordinator, Prof. Maura Conway, was a participant in Deakin University‘s conference on ‘Addressing the New Landscape of Terrorism: Actionable Responses,’ which took place in Bangkok from 24 – 28 July, 2017.
The conference brought together academics, CVE practitioners, policymakers, law enforcement, and others to discuss a range of issues in contemporary terrorism, with a particular focus on violent jihadism and responses to it.
Prof. Conway chaired a panel on ‘Understanding Radicalisation’ on the first day of the conference. She presented research, co-authored with colleagues, on ‘Disrupting Daesh: Measuring Takedown of Online Terrorist Material and Its Impacts’ on a panel concerned with ‘ISIS and Social Media’ on Day 2 of the conference.
The four-day conference was followed-up with a one-day workshop focused on academics and practitioners working together to develop initiatives in the CVE realm. Prof. Conway co-chaired a workshop session on ‘Media and Terrorism’ together with Mohammed Kozbar of Finsbury Park Mosque, London.
The Bangkok conference was part of a three-conference series, the first of which took place in Melbourne, Australia in 2016 and the final of which will be hosted by the International University of Rabat in Rabat, Morocco, in 2018.
The conference was convened by the Alfred Deakin Institute’s Dr. Virginie Andre in conjunction with the Thai National Broadcasting Commission. Additional sponsorship was supplied by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Embassy of France in Thailand, IRASEC, and the United States government.
Prof. Conway described the combined conference and workshop as “drawing together a range of people from diverse backgrounds, including French and Belgian youth, for in-depth discussion of violent extremism and terrorism and the roles of identity conflicts, marginalisation, and exclusion in fostering these.”