Transnational terrorism: surveying the threat to Australians

The challenge is a global one. We need to continue in developing cooperation with other countries in the region and beyond, to identify and literally outlaw those who threaten us on a global front. We have to make it ever more difficult for the terrorists to operate, to proselytise and recruit, to train, to plan, to move funds and resources, and to attack. We also need to demonstrate clearly that Australians are not hostile to Islam, as the terrorists portray us, but only to those who threaten us with militant jihad.

An activist foreign policy can assist in intervening to demonstrate the warmth of good regional relationships. Providing aid and other forms of targeted assistance in communities where extremism might otherwise flourish is an obvious example.

Similarly, there are cultural, administrative and religious divides where we can build bridges linking the Muslim world and the West. One practical form of bridge-building is by equipping countries with stronger, fairer and more resilient instruments of governance. Another is by expert advice to help them deal more effectively with the consequences and opportunities of globalisation.

In conclusion

We face a terrorist threat quite different from anything experienced in the past. Our enemies aren't interested in limited hostilities and extracting concessions from us. They wage a version of total war and they want to destroy us. They despise the values and aspirations we hold dear as the epitome of decadence and weakness.

Stable, open, tolerant democracies are the antithesis of the retrograde, oppressive regimes they want to foist on the Muslim world. Their hatred is implacable and the war on terror is likely to last for a long time.

On the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, on the front line of security and intelligence gathering in the region, in consulates, hospitals and police academies, Australians have responded readily, often heroically, to the threat. In time, every Australian citizen is going to have to come to terms with the fact that we are at war.

The sooner it's realised, the better will people be able to deal with it. Living in a fool's paradise is scarcely an option, because terrorist warfare concentrates on sapping morale. It deals in nameless dread, in threatened executions of hostages, in foreshadowed, indiscriminate civilian slaughter. The best defence against that kind of intimidation is a clear, widespread understanding of the issues.