The changing environment for intelligence, especially in law enforcement, in response to changing concepts of national security and developments in the nature and extent of transnational crime and other non-traditional security challenges

This work analyses both the conceptual underpinnings of emerging intelligence philosophy and doctrine as well as their practical application. Areas of focus in this research include risk assessment and intelligence, the extension of intelligence practice to the area of peacekeeping/peace enforcement, the role of knowledge management in intelligence, the ethical dilemmas inherent in emerging intelligence practice and the development of intelligence capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Crime hubs and criminal networking

Across the Asia-Pacific region there are sites (‘crime hubs’) where transnational criminals and terrorists meet, establish trust, communicate, plan criminal events and obtain criminal services. I and a number of colleagues are interested in understanding how such hubs help to structure criminal and terrorist activities. Our project will be the first comparative, empirical study of crime hubs in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. It aims to locate and examine the characteristics of particular crime hubs as a new way of understanding the crime and terror networks that make use of them. We aim to identify the factors that determine the rise and fall of particular crime hubs over time. Our multi-disciplinary team will generate new insights and tools relevant to disrupting transnational crime and evaluating the allocation of Australian policing resources.

The formation and decline of terrorist groups, and learning, knowledge transfer and adaptation in criminal organisations