The eminent Lowy Institute recently published an opinion piece written by Social Sciences and Security Studies PhD candidate Anne-Marie Balbi in The Interpreter.
The Interpreter is an online blog run by The Lowy Institute and provides in-depth daily commentary and analysis on international events.
“I wrote my piece for them based on my PhD research and current events,” says Balbi. “It’s like a dream come true for anyone doing International Relations to publish with Lowy.”
Balbi studied Political Science at Stockholm University before moving to Australia where she completed her Master of International Relations at Curtin.
In her opinion piece, Balbi suggests that new methods, called “counter-narratives” or soft strategies, are needed to not only counter violent extremism, but to target and prevent terrorism at its root.
“When it comes to normative barriers, in the context of terrorism and crime prevention, most people refrain from carrying out most types of criminal acts and acts of violence not out of fear of punishment, but simply because it is wrong,” Balbi says.
She suggests individuals, working within larger institutions, are integral to the process of employing soft strategies in an effort to reinstate these normative barriers.
“In this sense, parents, schools and positive role models are important actors when it comes to building normative barriers to crime, but similarly legislators, the criminal justice system, the media, religious authorities and others play central roles in defining what is right and wrong.”
Balbi notes how, in this age of instant access to and circulation of prolific information (and disinformation), there has been a break down of normative barriers.
“I think one good example of where the need for reinstating normative barriers has become obvious is the way people behave on social forums such as Facebook and Twitter. So far we’ve basically relied upon people simply behaving when writing comments, however with the growing occurrence of hate speech, governments have seen the need for normative barriers to be established by legislation. There is a clear connection between hate speech normalising violent actions, eroding the normative barriers that have prevented violent actions in the first place.”
Balbi’s PhD will explore soft counter-terrorism strategies, looking at how people engage with terrorist attack sites, and how the responses to these sites can create counter-narratives to terrorism.
“I don’t think that we necessarily have to be politically correct all the time, but I think that we definitely need to respect and listen to other opinions before making our case. As Aristotle himself once said: ‘The mark of an educated mind is the ability to entertain a thought without necessarily accepting it.’”
