Citations
I have over 430 citations to-date and a h-index of 8 (Google Scholar, 2019).
Strategic Culture in Terrorist Organisations (PhD Thesis)
In my in-progress PhD thesis at Australia’s Monash University, I develop a new theory of strategic culture to understand how strategic subcultures (that enable counter-power and elite circulation) might evolve in terrorist organisations. I use a modified form of process tracing to analyse Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo across three posited causal mechanisms: cultural transmission, social learning, and folklore. I reconceptualise Aum Shinrikyo’s Shambhala Plan as a senior leadership vehicle for social mobility, and trace the organisation’s ethical collapse. I have published original articles from this research in Contemporary Security Policy and M/C Journal, and presented at the International Studies Association’s annual convention in Toronto, in 2014.
Research Program: Strategic Subcultures
My post-PhD research program focuses on the development of strategic subcultures in terrorist organisations and in the broader environment context of political economy. I am preparing to work on two post-PhD projects: (1) to more fully articulate and explore what I call the fourth generation of theory-building in strategic culture which has emerged since 2002 and which focuses on security risks in a multipolar world; and (2) exploring the potential dynamics of how strategic subcultures relate to political economy – such as terrorist financing, dark pools in capital markets, and the event arbitrage style of hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds.
Methodologically, I use counterfactuals, causal case studies, event studies, and process tracing. This research agenda is informed by personal autoethnographic experiences, undergraduate tutoring about politics and foreign policy, and insights from my earlier research on theory-testing in internet, journalism, digital media, and foreign policy decision-making.
I have published on a range of other subjects: the 2000 dotcom crash; the 2000 and 2004 United States presidential elections; the 11th September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States; interviews with United States design, media, and subculture figures; contemporary political and social issues in the United States and Australia; and strategies for grant and research program development.
Policy Expertise
I have policy expertise in counterterrorism and foreign policy. I have taught undergraduate units on Australian foreign policy and Australian politics. I have also written on Australian media, and defence and national security policy, Asia-Pacific security, and United States-Australian discourses on the Global War on Terror as grand strategy.