Professor Greg Barton

Building Resilience to Social Harms

Deakin University

Greg is one of Australia’s leading scholars of both modern Indonesia and of terrorism and countering violent extremism. For more than 25 years he has undertaken extensive research on Indonesia politics and society, especially of the role of Islam as both a constructive and a disruptive force. He has been active in the inter-faith dialogue initiatives and has a deep commitment to building understanding of Islam and Muslim society. The central axis of his research interests is the way in which religious thought, individual believers and religious communities respond to modernity and to the modern nation state. He also has a strong interest in international relations and comparative international politics. Since 2004 he has made a comparative study of progressive Islamic, with particular reference to Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah in Indonesia and the transnational Hizmet movement inspired by Turkey’s Fethullah Gulen.

Greg also has a general interest in security studies and human security and a particular interest in countering violent extremism. He continues to research the offshoots of Jemaah Islamiyah and related radical Islamist movements in Southeast Asia. Greg is a frequently interviewed by the Australian and international electronic and print media on Islam, Islamic and Islamist movements around the world and on Indonesia and the politics of the Muslim world. He is a regular expert guest on ABC TV’s News Breakfast and Sky News Australia and a variety of programs on ABC Radio National, ABC Local Radio, Radio Australia, SBS Radio and SBS TV, Voice of America (Washington), China Radio International (Bejing), BBC radio and television, Hongkong Radio, Radio New Zealand, China Central Television (CCTV), Channel News Asia (Singapore), and commercial radio and TV in Australia, including 3AW, 2GB, 2UE, Channel Seven News, Channel Nine’s Today, and Channel Ten’s The Project. He also writes opinion pieces for the Melbourne Herald Sun and the Australian Financial Review.