Following the 2016 US election, the role of information in politics and society is under increasing scrutiny. Is information benign, a political weapon or the first casualty of the post-truth era? Historically, information was a standard tool and target of political subversion, but now as it forms the backbone of our economies, social lives and political anatomies, are we especially vulnerable to its exploitation and misuses?

In lunchtime conversation chaired and moderated by Head of College Professor Rory Medcalf, members of our academic team will offer their perspectives on the uniqueness of contemporary information wars.

Associate Professor Matthew Sussex is the Academic Director at the National Security College. His main research specialisation is on Russian foreign and security policy, but his interests also cover government and politics in Eurasia, strategic studies, terrorism and counter-terrorism, energy security and Australian foreign policy. He is particularly interested in contemporary trends in violent conflict, especially in ‘hybrid’ warfare and in the evolution of propaganda. Prior to joining NSC, Dr Sussex was Director of Politics and International Relations at the University of Tasmania.

Professor Roger Bradbury leads the Strategy and Statecraft in Cyberspace research program at the National Security College. He is a complex systems scientist, trained originally as a zoologist, whose research interests lie in the modelling and simulation of the dynamics of coupled social and natural systems. In recent years he has worked in the Australian Intelligence Community on the strategic analysis of international science and technology issues. Professor Bradbury was the Chief Scientist in the Bureau of Resource Sciences in the 1990s and leader of the Marine Systems Group at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in the 1980s. He is particularly interested in cyberspace as a strategic domain.

Dr Tim Legrand is a Lecturer at the National Security College. His interdisciplinary research concerns the structures, management and processes of public administration. His work draws on, and contributes to political science, law, international relations, security studies and public policy around several research streams that include international policy transfer, evidence-based policy-making, transgovernmental policy networks, the governance of national security and emergency policy, and crisis management. Dr Legrand has worked as a policy consultant for the UK Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Dr Haroro J. Ingram is a Lecturer at the National Security College and a Research Fellow with the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University. His primary research project analyses the role of propaganda in the strategies of violent non-state political movements, with the Islamic State and the Afghan Taliban as major case studies, and is funded by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Dr Ingram’s research draws heavily on primary source materials, most of which are collected during periods of fieldwork in South Asia (Afghanistan) and the Middle East (Iraq).

Dr Ingram has interviewed current and former activists and fighters from Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Syria, as well as current and former counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operatives. He has been a visiting fellow with institutions such as the International Centre for Counter-terrorism in The Hague and the Naval Postgraduate School’s Defense Analysis Department (Monterey, California). Prior to entering academia, Dr Ingram worked in a variety of national security roles.

THIS EVENT WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A LIGHT LUNCH RECEPTION