Abstract

Young men are becoming central actors in a rapidly evolving threat landscape shaped by grievance, perceived humiliation, and a volatile search for belonging. Extreme-right groups increasingly mobilise masculinity through narratives of restoration and retribution that have deep emotional resonance, and travel easily across borders. These dynamics now underpin hybrid extremist formations in which far-right, Christian-nationalist, jihadist and conspiratorial narratives converge within youth-dominated online ecosystems to identify enemies and legitimise both stochastic lone-actor violence and coordinated group mobilisation.

Drawing on interview-based research, quantitative analysis, digital fieldwork and insights from recent terrorism investigations, this seminar centres militant masculinity as both an emotional driver and an organising logic for contemporary violent extremism. It examines how Western extreme-right narratives are circulating into Southeast Asian settings, how they are being adapted by young men in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and what this signals about emerging regional risks.

These have clear implications for security practitioners, including early indicators of radicalisation, guidance on identifying potential targets, points of online intervention, the critical necessity of engaging young people as partners, and practical lessons from Australian CVE and CT practice.

About the Speaker

Josh Roose is an Associate Professor of Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University, Melbourne. He is a leading scholar of political and religious violent extremism and terrorism in Australia and a respected scholar of masculinities and violent extremism, emergent ideological formations, and violent misogyny globally. He has published three empirically grounded monographs exploring the role of masculinities, ideology, emotions, and social trajectories in the appeal to Salafi Jihadism, Far-Right populism, the extreme-right, and anti-women movements.

He has advised the Australian and State Governments and presented to international bodies including the United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), European Union Radicalisation Awareness Network (EU) and Nordic Council. His current body of work explores emergent forms of extremist ideologies and the translation of research into legislative, policy, and judicial settings.