Recent exchanges in the national papers on security and terrorism research call attention to the volatility of academic research and policy formation on Islam, society and security in our region. Sadly, as religious communities polarise and voting publics react, academics contributing to policy formation on international relations and security are also entering public debate as champions of false alternatives: do we Western-domiciled academics just blame our own governments’ policy mistakes or do we do the hard work of going after the terrorists?

There is an excluded middle that needs to be brought back into focus and better projected into public discourse. Many of us in the Griffith Asia Institute and our colleagues at other institutions in Brisbane are engaged in putting forward nuanced, but also sharp-edged, analyses of the intersections between Islam, society and security in Southeast Asia and Australia.

However we may be missing opportunities for synergies amongst ourselves, particularly in the following areas:

• the nexus of international relations theory and the other social sciences,
• the appropriate wedding of cultural and social structural analyses of religions in society, and
• the mutual enrichment of Southeast Asian and Australian area studies and social science theory.

The research group aims to bring together Southeast Asianists, Islamicists and specialists in all areas related to security (especially in Southeast Asia and Australia) for regular exchange about our research activities with a view to building on the synergies we identify through our exchanges.

Program Leader: Associate Professor Julia Howell