Prof. Ben Saul
Ben Saul is Challis Chair of International Law at the University of Sydney, the Whitlam and Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University in 2017-18, a barrister, and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. Ben has published 13 books and 90 refereed articles. Significant books include Defining Terrorism in International Law (2006), Research Handbook on International Law and Terrorism (2014), the Oxford Commentary on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2014) (awarded a Certificate of Merit by the American Society of International Law), and Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights (2016). Ben practises in international tribunals (including the ICTY, IACtHR, STL and ECCC) and was lead counsel in five successful security cases against Australia before the UN Human Rights Committee (FKAG (2013), MMM (2013), Leghaei (2015), Hicks (2016) and FJ (2016). Ben has advised United Nations and international bodies (including UNODC, UNHCR, UNESCO and OHCHR), governments, and NGOs, and delivered technical assistance in developing countries. He drafted the professional training curriculum on terrorism and international law for UNODC. Ben has served on various international and national bodies, and taught law and undertaken field missions in numerous countries. He often appears in the media. He has a doctorate from Oxford and honours degrees in Arts and Law from Sydney.
Collecting data on the number of terrorist attacks is a delicate task. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) developed a baseline Terrorism Threat Assessment. This assessment used open source data to present an assessment of terrorism in 32 countries across four categories: (1) Terrorist Attacks, (2) (Returning) Foreign Terrorist Fighters (RFTF), (3) […]
Introduction Academic research began to focus specifically on terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s, although it would take until the 9/11 attacks before the burgeoning field took on its current form and significantly increased output. From those early days in the mid-to-late twentieth century onwards, terrorism research has had a distinctly applied focus, with a […]
Introduction In Syria and Iraq, the general consensus is that Islamic State (IS) has been militarily defeated, but the terror group is now popping up elsewhere and breathing new life into its global caliphate. In an April 29 video, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi mentioned that pledges of allegiance from the Khorasan region had been […]