ABOUT

The next AVERT Seminar will be presented by Associate Professor David Malet (American University, Washington). Ukraine Foreign Fighters: Volunteers on The Right Side or the Far-Right’s ISIS? While international attention focused on the threat of jihadi foreign fighters and returnees, since 2014 thousands of foreign fighters have joined the conflict in Ukraine, including a number of Australians. Foreign Fighters on both sides of the Ukraine War cross the ideological spectrum, but returnees in the US and Australia have already become key players in terrorist plots and extremist movements. This presentation examines the impact of foreign volunteers in Ukraine and as potential future security challenges.

SPEAKER DETAILS

David Malet is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington. Previously he served as Director of the Security Policy Studies Program at the George Washington University. He also taught at the University of Melbourne, and at Colorado State University, where he was Director of the Center for the Study of Homeland Security. From 2000-2003 he served as Research Assistant for national security issues to US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.    Professor Malet has been researching foreign fighters since 2005 and is the author of Foreign Fighters: Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts (Oxford University Press, 2013) and co-editor of Transnational Actors in War and Peace: Militants, Activists, and Corporations in World Politics (Georgetown University Press, 2017). He regularly consults on foreign terrorist fighter policy challenges for governmental and civil society organizations and media. His other research includes military use of biotechnologies and use of counter-narratives in radicalization. 

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

RSVP to adi-avert@deakin.edu.au to attend in person.

Register here to watch on Zoom.