Session 2: Session Summary
Session Two - Land Power and Countering Violent Extremism
Synthesis
The foundation for this session was laid by speakers in Session 1, with violent extremism identified as a regional threat to varying degrees by most speakers. The role of technology and information was articulated as a key concern in the context of countering violent extremism, while the vital role of people and partnerships are also prominent themes in this session.
Presenters included Major General Adam Findlay, AO, Commander Special Operations Command, Australian Army; Lieutenant General Rolando Joselito Bautista, AFP, Commanding General Philippines Army; Ms Katja Theodorakis, Programme Manager for Foreign/Security Policy and Counter- Terrorism at the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation; and Mr Duncan Lewis, AO, DSC, CSC, Director-General, Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation.
Violent Extremism
Presenters were clear that they considered the term ‘violent extremism’ (VE) covered a wide range of violent, non-state activity. In an historical context, the term has been expanded beyond ‘terrorism’, which has tended to be associated with activities perpetrated by Islamic terrorist organisations such as Daesh. The term ‘terrorism’ was particularly applied in this way after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre buildings in New York in 2001, following which the then US president, George W Bush, declared a ‘War on Terrorism’. Mr Lewis clearly highlighted that violent extremism is not the sole preserve of Islamic organisations such as Daesh, indicating that threats include right wing supremacists and left wing extremists. There is no clear definition of VE.
From the Australian perspective, VE is defined by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) as:
‘…a willingness to use unlawful violence or support the use of violence by others to promote a political, ideological or religious goal’.1
A key focus of the Australian Government in this area is to ‘combat the threat posed by home-grown terrorism and to discourage Australians from travelling overseas to participate in conflicts’,2 with Australia’s programmes in this area managed by the Department of Home Affairs.
More broadly, there is no international definition of VE, with DFAT noting violent extremism ‘is a complex phenomenon that differs substantially across, and within, countries’.3 As such, the impacts, interpretations and responses to violent extremism are diverse. Key themes emerging from this session are explored below.
Countering Violent Extremism through Partnerships
Major General Findlay noted in his speech that Australia has had operational experience in countering violent extremism since 2001 and emphasised that this experience highlighted the important role of relationships. This echoes the Chief of Army’s reflections on the power of partnerships and the emphasis on international engagement in the 2016 Defence White Paper.4 The types of relationships called for cover a broad spectrum including domestic partnering between government agencies as well as bilateral and multilateral international partnerships. Major General Findlay observed that technology-led global interconnectedness meant that local threats could become global, and global, local. As such, he stressed that ‘no one agency/ force/department owns the response to violent extremism’. Mr Lewis observed that our approach to VE needs to be cross-agency, cross-service, cross boundaries and cross-languages.
Major General Findlay also highlighted the value of soft cooperation and indicated that Australia was engaging multilaterally on VE through agreements such as the ASEAN-AU Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation to Counter International Terrorism. The value of multilateral forums regionally was a key point made by speakers in Session 1.
In the Philippines, Lieutenant General Rolando Joselito Bautista expanded the interpretation of partnerships beyond governments to include Army collaboration with civilian entities in the domestic fight against Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL) infiltration, an approach that led to the liberation of Marawi. Lieutenant General Bautista echoed Major General Findlay’s emphasis on the importance of partnerships and stressed that key components of international partnerships could include intensifying bilateral and multilateral exercises and increasing information sharing. He noted that foreign intelligence and technical support were important in the battle for Marawi. The development of a collective international strategy to eradicate extremist ideals formed part of Lieutenant General Bautista’s ‘Call to Action’ against violent extremism.
Ideology and cultural awareness
Following Lieutenant General Bautista’s talk and the identification of ‘ideals’ as a key component of countermeasures to VE, Ms Katja Theodorakis examined the nature of ideology in VE and identified the role of narratives in countering extremist ideology. Ms Theodorakis cautioned against adopting an ‘us versus them’ or ‘good versus evil’ binary construction of the enemy, noting that while binaries are effectively employed by violent extremists, responses or countermeasures are likely to require a nuanced understanding of extremist cultures. She reiterated Mr Lewis’s caution against identifying Islamist organisations as the sole source of VE threats, also pointing to the potential for political rather than religious ideology to fuel extremist activities, such as a far-right ideology.
Regardless of the genesis of VE, Ms Theodorakis noted that common characteristics to the effectiveness of messaging are a strong sense of self-understanding and the adoption of cultural narratives. Additionally, she noted that VE groups tend to advocate from an ethical core that has moral and emotional appeal. For example, Islamic extremists have used poetry to cast a romantic and emotional attribution to Islam with the messaging addressing notions of justice and injustice in order to promote the idea of legitimacy and ‘just terror’.
An important feature of storytelling is that it allows people to relate their own experience to the experiences of others, providing an avenue for people to identify shared cultural values or morals while simultaneously conveying different experiences leading to different perspectives.5 In the information age, the effective use of social media provides a new mode of storytelling with which people can engage, both individually and as a group.
Speakers identified that while social media has been used effectively by violent extremists, this form of communication is not just the province of such groups and that land forces can also use the medium to similar effect. By virtue of being the force closest to communities, Army has the capacity to undertake direct dialogue with them to further explore, potentially influence, and even co-create narratives.
Ms Theodorakis’ assertion about the role of land forces echoed Major General Findlay, who suggested that a key strategy for Army is to understand people’s mindsets. Both Major General Findlay and Ms Theodorakis noted that experience has shown lethal force can have a negative effect when countering VE. It can often reinforce extremists’ narratives around ‘just terror’ thus falling into an ‘ethical trap’, as well as inspiring retaliatory attacks and fuelling recruitment.
Major General Findlay also suggested that rather than concentrate on purely military activities, Army could place more emphasis on assisting civilian actors who may be better placed to counter the effects of extremists. These civilian actors would hold positions of influence such as teachers, medical workers, aid organisations and business owners. The effectiveness of these non-military influencers would be predicated upon, and derived from, many factors, including proximity to the target audience, inherent trust and the ability to induce ‘soft’ cooperation by the local population.
Lieutenant General Bautista’s experience in Marawi supported this approach, indicating that a key lesson learned from the conflict was the use of a two-pronged strategy of hard and soft power. Soft power was crucial to earning the trust of civilians in garnering support for military actions and legitimising the use of force. The Philippine Army strategically engaged with community organisations and key community influencers to build trust and to ‘contain the enemy psychologically’. A specific narrative of a ‘servant soldier’ committed to protecting the people was cultivated and was coupled with showing respect for cultural and religious heritage.
Accelerated Warfare
Accelerated Warfare is described in the Chief of Army’s Futures Statement (FS) as being inclusive of the geopolitical context, changing threat, disruptive technologies and domain integration, resulting in an accelerated environment. It further describes both the operating environment and a description of ‘how we respond’.6
Part of Accelerated Warfare includes the tools that can assist with outpacing and outmanoeuvring the enemy, and is particularly important in countering VE.
Information and Technology Dominance
Information, and the pace with which it can be provided, can influence the operating environment and contribute to Accelerated Warfare. Lieutenant General Bautista provided examples of how technology was used to provide and gather information to assist the Philippine Army in communicating with communities in the fight for Marawi. Unmanned Aerial Systems, for example, were used to deliver mobile phones to civilians trapped amongst the fighting, allowing for the relay of information leading to their rescue.
Lieutenant General Bautista, in his ‘Call to Action’, called for optimised use of social media as part of international strategies to counter VE. Ms Theodorakis also noted the use of social media in creating a networked global insurgency and likened the importance of dominating narratives to having kinetic superiority. Mr Lewis introduced the idea of ‘accelerated anxiety’, referring to people’s awareness—through access to information through the internet and media—of things that have no relevance to their own lives. He noted that violent extremists exploited this through the effective use of technology. He observed that another concern with the use of social media and the internet by violent extremists is the radicalisation of youth in their homes. Concerns about online radicalisation were expressed by Major General Findlay, who pointed to the ASEAN-AU MoU on counter terrorism, one component of which includes undertaking regional dialogue and workshops on countering online radicalisation.8 In this context, the interoperability between government agencies is an objective of the government.
Major General Findlay noted the need for land forces to adapt and evolve in the new accelerated environment. He stressed that operational responses are insufficient and called for greater tactical responses. He particularly stressed that there are limits to the use of lethal force and that land forces ‘can’t kill their way to victory’ in countering VE. This sentiment was echoed by Mr Lewis, who opined that armies are not the solution to VE. He observed that while not capable of solving the problem by itself, Army provided capabilities that can assist in countering VE, such as Special Forces, intelligence, topographical/spatial survey capabilities and logistic capabilities.
The Defence White Paper 7 recognises the importance of technology in addressing modern threats, indicating Army needs to ‘invest in modern space and cyber- capabilities and the infrastructure, information and communications systems that support defence capability’. The importance of information and technology dominance was echoed by Lieutenant General Bautista, who called not only for the optimised use of social media and diverse media platforms, but also the strengthening of cyber-security capabilities. Enhanced information sharing and intelligence within the international community is a way to counteract VE.
Figure 16. Major General Findlay, AM, Special Operations Commander - Australia addressing members of the Special Air Service Regiment. (Image: DoD)
Endnotes
- Council of Australian Governments, 2015, Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy, p. 7
- Source: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/national-security/countering-viole…, accessed 12 September 2018.
- Development Approach to Countering Violent Extremism, Australian Government. URL: https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/development-approac…- countering-violent-extremism.pdf
- Department of Defence, 2016, Defence White Paper 2016, p. 21 at: http://www. defence.gov.au/whitepaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf
- Black, L.W., 2008. Deliberation, Storytelling, and Dialogic Moments. Communication Theory, 18(1), pp.93–116. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1468- 2885.2007.00315.x
- Lieutenant General Rick Burr, Accelerated Warfare, Futures Statement for an Army in Motion, 8 August 2016, Accessible at: https://www.army.gov.au/our-work/from-the- chief-of-army/accelerated-warfare
- Department of Defence, 2016, Defence White Paper 2016, at: http://www.defence. gov.au/whitepaper/Docs/2016-Defence-White-Paper.pdf
- Combating terrorism and violent extremism, Sunday, March 17, 2018, ASEAN Special Summit. Source: https://aseanaustralia.pmc.gov.au/news/combating-terrorism-and violent-extremism accessed 14 September 2018.
