Australia

This chapter explores the ways in which resilience discourse and frameworks have been mobilised within the context of countering violent extremism (CVE) theory, policy, and practice in Australia over two decades. As in many other countries, resilience has been central to the policy landscape of Australia’s prevention of violent extremism and radicalisation to terrorism. The historical emphasis in Australian CVE policy on deploying a social-ecological construct of resilience that is enmeshed with creating and sustaining social cohesion as a core tenet of CVE practice reflects Australia’s composition and history, particularly since the 1970s, as a multicultural, pluralist democracy with a strong focus on integrating culturally diverse communities. While this approach reflects a range of pro-social aims, its primary focus on ethnocultural minority communities, and Muslim communities in particular, has also been critiqued as undermining the very resilience it purports to build by securitising communities in the name of promoting resilience to violent extremism. The acceleration of diverse forms of extremism in Australia, including far-right violent extremism, now raises questions of how fit for purpose Australian models of CVE resilience may be, and what might need to change as a result.