This strategic forum addresses two of the most critical issues in the current national security debate: nearly seven years after 9/11, where does global terrorism now sit in our understanding of the threat spectrum, and how should Australia respond to terrorism in our region?

The contributors to this forum—a group of younger scholars working on a range of international strategic issues—bring a fresh approach and new thinking to these questions.

In each case, the authors have started from first principles. Is the war on terror really a war? Does terrorism represent a strategic threat? What are al-Qaeda’s weaknesses, and how should we exploit them? And what is the next big shock to the international system?

The debate here raises an important issue. In the years since 9/11, the Australian Government has concentrated its national security resources on fighting terrorism. The effect has been a concentration of effort that dwarfs any other issue on the national security agenda (except perhaps defence). Once ASIO completes its current expansionary phase in 2010, one in six bureaucrats in Canberra will be working with an intelligence or national security agency.

One line of argument from these contributors is that Australia may be placing too many eggs in the one terrorism basket. I tend to agree. As I said in my opening piece, terrorism is not the only threat to Australia’s security interests. And a comprehensive national security policy must be flexible and adaptive enough to respond to a range of risks and pressures in the international system.

But terrorism is still important, and no government will have the luxury of complacency when it comes to guarding against the re-emergence of a terrorist threat to Australians or Australian interests overseas.