All over the world, there is now a rising tide of radical ‘Islamist’ movements, which, especially since 9/11, have turned militant. Since then, terrorist attacks against civilian populations both in the West and within Muslim countries themselves have become almost daily occurrences. Several countries have been directly or indirectly affected by Islamist militancy. In Bangladesh, Islamist militants killed 156 people in the 1990s, and the country experienced at least 48 smallscale attacks that killed over 120 people between 2015 and 2016. The July 2016 attack at the Holey Artisan Café in Dhaka killed approximately 20 foreigners, while an abortive attack six days later killed two. These and other similar incidents confirmed the presence of external militant outfits in the country and the severity of the challenge. Based on an exhaustive review of the relevant literature and two stints of fieldwork in Bangladesh involving 71 in-depth interviews of highly credentialled individuals, this project seek to investigate not only the causes of radicalization but also how radicalization has unfolded since 2009. This thesis looks at both local and global factors that have served to provoke young Bangladeshis, many of whom are from relatively well-educated backgrounds, to become religiously belligerent and eventually to turn into terrorists. Ideology, it is argued, plays a pivotal role in the radicalization process and justifies violence. Most importantly, ideology proffers solutions to the micro and macro causes of commonly identifiable youth disaffection. This study mainly focuses on the Islamic State and Al Qaeda’s exploitation of religious beliefs and their construction of a mobilising, apocalyptic narrative that strikes a chord with the young, middle-class Muslims. Both organisations target them for recruitment. The thesis ends by proffering what is called a Pyramid Root Cause model,’ which attempts to tie all the causative variables of radicalization into a connected explanation of what has been happening in Bangladesh over the last decade.

The point of departure in this chapter is Niall Ferguson's 2006 claim that 'as works of prophecy go' S.P. Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' thesis has been 'a real winner.' This claim is examined in the light both of the persistent scholarly verdict that the thesis is deeply flawed, and its continued public and academic usage since it first appeared in 1993 as an article in Foreign Affairs. Given that the thesis is deemed to misrepresent, rather than capture, the tensions existing between Islam and the West now and into the future, why has it persisted as long as it has?

The burden of Huntington's thesis is that future wars will be conducted by entire civilizations - though principally Islam and the West - and be driven largely by cultural differences at the fault-lines of contact between them. Huntington had proposed this as a model of international relations to replace the old Cold War paradigm that had ended with the break-up of the Soviet Union and the demise of Communism. His aim was to construct an equally simple model of global politics that could predict and explain the kind of conflict that would come to dominate international relations.

While Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' was denied paradigmatic status, this chapter considers aspects of his futurological model that he may have got right or partially right. This includes the key concepts of 'culture' and 'civilization', which he is credited with introducing to the study of international relations, and the 'helpfulness' of his thesis in accounting for the rise of populist far-right parties, particularly in Europe, and their growing electoral success. The early warning that Huntington provided of civilizational alienation between Muslims and Hindus on the subcontinent and the BJP's agenda of turning India into a Hindu state is also looked at in the context of a regional case study of a civilizational 'clash' ostensibly well underway.

That Huntington's thesis may also have derived a degree of reinforcement from the phenomenon of Islamist radicalization on the one hand, and the rise of Islamophobia on the other, is also explored. Reinforcement also comes in the form of Islamist narratives that conjure up an apocalyptic confrontation between Islam and the West, narratives that are constructed independently of Huntington's, but in terms of doomsday scenarios run parallel with his.

The chapter ends by reflecting on the place where the 'clash of civilizations' has arrived, and currently occupies in the study of international relations.

Hazaras, a persecuted minority from Afghanistan, number among those seeking asylum in Australia since 1999. Australia’s national histories and its debate over boat arrivals often exclude refugee voices. This thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge by using oral history to record, present and analyse experiences of loss and hope among Hazara refugees through six in-depth case studies. Exploring the content and subjectivity of their narratives, it shows that Hazaras are fulfilling hopes and building successful lives within Australia when given the opportunity, but the legacy of persecution, loss, trauma, family separations and uncertainty can create prolonged crises or haunt them for decades.

The thesis also builds methodological knowledge by sharing my process of becoming more adaptive when interviewing within cross-cultural and crisis settings. It demonstrates that deep connection to the narrator, recognition of the multiple ways in which they recount, and empathetic imagining of their experiences, alongside the interviewer’s own self-reflection, are key elements of gathering stories of trauma and bereavement. Being flexible during the fieldwork, yielding to the narrator’s cultural mores as needed, and being sensitive to their personal circumstances enable meaningful insights to be gleaned and ethical care to be upheld. Through this evolving practice, the voices of marginalised Hazaras have been recognised and amplified, enabling their memories to help shape, enrich, or unsettle Australia’s recent refugee historiography.

This handbook brings national and thematic case studies together to examine a variety of populist politics from local and comparative perspectives in the Asia Pacific. The chapters consider key and cross cutting themes such as populism and nationalism, religion, ethnicity and gender, as well as authoritarianism. They show how populist politics alters the way governments mediate state-society relations.

The essays in this volume consider:

diverse approaches in populist politics, for example, post-colonial, strategic vs ideational, growth and redistribution, leadership styles, and in what ways they are similar to, or different from, populist discourses in Europe and the United States

under what social, political, economic and structural conditions populist politics has emerged in the Asia-Pacific region

national case studies drawn from South, East and Southeast Asia as well as the Pacific analyzing themes such as media, religion, gender, medical populism, corruption and cronyism, and inclusive vs exclusive forms of populist politics

modes and techniques of social and political mobilization that populist politicians employ to influence people and their impact on the way democracy is conceived and practiced in the Asia Pacific

As a systematic account of populist ideologies, strategies, leaders and trends in the Asia Pacific, this handbook is essential reading for scholars of area studies, especially in the Asia Pacific, politics and international relations, and political and social theory.

This thesis interrogates the concept of ‘Moderate Islam,’ a concept that is routinely referred to in Western discourse about Islam, but which engenders considerable debate within the Muslim world. Filling a gap in the scholarly literature, the thesis puts forward the argument that ‘Moderate Islam’ is essentially a Western geo-political construct that is conceived as the binary opposite of ‘Radical Islam’ as a way of making sense of Islamic radicalisation and the US war on terror. Juxtaposed against this, orthodox or mainstream Islam’s understanding of ‘Moderation’ is shown to be intrinsically embodied in the theological concept of ‘Wasatiyyah’. A case study of 29 largely academic Turkish and Australian respondents follows in order to demonstrate not only the ambiguity of the term ‘Moderate Islam’, but also its complexity depending on whether it is viewed through geopolitical, theological or jurisprudential lenses. Because it is associated with the Gülen movement, for example, ‘Moderate Islam’ acquires an entirely different complexion within a Turkish context. Ultimately, the thesis raises the possibility of achieving a greater understanding of ‘Moderate Islam’ vis-à-vis Wasatiyyah through a consideration of both Western and Muslim epistemologies.

There is something a little different for the Russel Ward Memorial lecture in 2021. Well not entirely. When first asked to consider presenting the lecture I was hesitant in view of the many outstanding presentations of the Annual Lecture over the years, including the very first from Russel Ward himself.¹ I have attended most of these and know what is expected. The thirty-five lecturers who precede me literally represent a Who's Who of front-line scholars of Australian history since 1986, when the series began. The names of those mentioned on the history webpage advertising the Russel Ward lecture - Ken Inglis, Ann Curthoys, Henry Reynolds, Geoffrey Blainey, Barry Smith and Stuart Macintyre — unequivocally confirm this. But so too would any of the other 29 lecturers if similarly singled out.²

This book sheds light on religiously motivated extremism and violence in South Asia, a phenomenon which ostensibly poses critical and unique challenges to the peace, security and governance not only of the region, but also of the world at large. The book is distinctive in-so-far as it re-examines conventional wisdom held about religious extremism in South Asia and departs from the literature which centres its analyses on Islamic militancy based on the questions and assumptions of the West's 'war on terror'.
This volume also offers a comprehensive analysis of new extremist movements and how their emergence and success places existing theoretical frameworks in the study of religious extremism into question. This collection further examines topical issues including the study of social media and its impact on the evolution and operation of violent extremism. It also analyses grassroots and innovative non-state initiatives aimed to counter extremist ideologies. Through case studies focusing on Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, this collection examines extremist materials, methods of political mobilisation and recruitment processes and maps the interconnected nature of sociological change with the ideological and political transformations of extremist movements.