Message from the Head of College: August 2025

The wattle is blooming in Canberra and the ANU National Security College is back in its regular home on campus. My thanks to the team for working so resourcefully from dispersed temporary accommodation through the long disruption of building repairs and refurbishment these past nine months. We are now well placed for an intensive sequence of commitments serving the national interest out to the end of the year.

Highlights this past month have included close support for informed public debate. I was especially proud to see NSC host a significant speech by Attorney-General the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, connected with the launch of a formal review of how an act of terrorism is defined under Australian law. We convened a panel discussion among leading expert and practitioner voices to draw out key themes for this review initiated by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM), Jake Blight. The conversation was a model for the respectful, evidence-based and forthright engagement with sensitive national security issues that is at the heart of NSC’s policy engagement role. 

Meanwhile, NSC’s ambitious initiative of Community Consultations is picking up pace. The past five weeks have taken our teams to the Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria and rural New South Wales, not to mention the corridors of Federal Parliament, and we’ve been struck by the deep levels of interest in all these places in talking about challenges to the nation’s resilience and preparedness.

It’s mid-semester break for our academic program, which means a pause from teaching but plenty of assessment, grading and preparation for the second half of the semester. And I’m looking forward to joining colleagues in the weeks ahead to deliver a special practitioner-rich course on terrorism and counter-terrorism, with the INSLM review providing the perfect contemporary resource. 

Our busy series of forthcoming professional development opportunities includes programs on Southeast Asia and the intelligence-policy nexus, which I commend to officials across the security community – places are filling fast, so register soon.