Levi West is a PhD candidate in the Department of International Relations at the

Australian National University, and the Director of Terrorism Studies at the Australian

Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University (Canberra).

Levi’s PhD research seeks to develop a conceptual framework that identifies the

mechanism/s by which terrorism is able to exert power in the international system.

The framework, which conceptualises the convergent relationship between

innovative forms of violence; the incorporation of communicative dynamics and

narratives; and the exploitation of leading edge communications technologies,

suggests that when undertaken within these parameters, terrorism can successfully

exert substantial and disproportionate power both against its primary adversary,

and contemporaneously, within and across the international system. The framework’s

validity will be tested across three case studies: the Anarchist terrorism of the late

1800s and early 1900s, Palestinian terrorism after 1964, and contemporary

violent, global, Salafi-Jihadist terrorism after 2001.

Levi manages Australia’s only comprehensive postgraduate terrorism studies program

at CSU Canberra, and works closely with counter-terrorism agencies of the

Australian government. He has previously lectured to law enforcement, intelligence, and military audiences both domestically and internationally, including at the Naval War College in the United States, the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation in Indonesia, the National Security College, and the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at ANU, and at the Australian Command and Staff College at the Australian Defence College as well as delivering numerous bespoke presentations to various organisations within the national security apparatus. He is a sought after speaker on terrorism and other national security issues. In addition to lecturing in higher education contexts, he regularly delivers a range of professional development training products and consults to a broad range of government agencies and private sector clients.

Levi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and International Studies from Southern Cross University; a Master of International Security Studies and Master of Policing, Intelligence, and Counter Terrorism from Macquarie University; and a Graduate Certificate in National Security Policy from the ANU.

During his undergraduate degree Levi studied in the United States on a year-long exchange program, at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, and as a research intern at the Centre for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, DC.

Levi’s broader research interest include strategies of terrorism and insurgency; diversity and evolution of violent non-state actors; use of technology by non-state actors; transnational crime and illicit finance; and state responses to non-state violence.

Levi is available for media opportunities on request.