EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THE HINDU DELHI WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2020 OPED 11 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Amidst a tragedy, an opportunity The road to radicalisation The raging bushfires give India and Australia a chance to deepen their dialogue, including on energy Oversimplification of factors that push an individual to engage in acts of violence will lead to poor policymaking in 1955, Prime Minister Robert Men­ zies decided that Australia should aiming at cognitive change concentrate their not take part in the Bandung Afro­ efforts on a single aspect without taking into Asian conference. By distancing Aus­ account a host of factors. There is also no sta­ tralia from the ‘new world’, Menzies tistical correlation between the number of (who would later confess that Occi­ people admitted to such programmes and Amitabh Mattoo dentals did not understand India) the number of people who emerge ‘deradi­ alienated Indians, offended Prime Akshat Upadhyay calised’, as admitted tacitly by Khan’s super­ Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and left visors at the Healthy Identity Intervention The writer David Horne once de­ Australia unsure for decades about Programme at Belmarsh prison, where he scribed Australia as “the lucky coun­ its Asian identity. India and Australia Whenever there are acts of violence, there is was incarcerated for eight years. try”, with its abundance of natural should bring this chequered past to a an urgency to label them as acts of terror. resources, good weather, and its rela­ closure, and herald a new united The basis for categorisation of violent acts as Process of radicalisation tive geographical isolation from the front for the Indo­Pacific. terrorist acts include the type of weapons The second issue is how the process of radi­ turbulence of the world. Today, with Nearly a decade ago, when I decid­ used in the killings, the beliefs of the ac­ calisation is perceived by analysts and aca­ wildfires burning more than 12 mil­ ed to be the inaugural director of the cused, the number of people killed, etc. Ca­ demics. Most consider radicalisation as a li­ lion hectares of land, destroying na­ “While the Indian Ocean Dipole may have triggered the drought that is related Australia India Institute at Mel­ tegorising violence is important, but if it is near process where the individual goes tive flora, killing thousands of wild to the bushfires, the campaign against fossil fuels is sure to intensify in the bourne, it was seen as a giant leap of done without due thought or diligence, it through a number of stages. The most com­ animals, including endangered spe­ days to come.”Firefighters in Australia's Meroo National Park. * NYT faith. I had not visited Australia be­ could end up harming the affected state or mon model is the one designed by the New cies, and displacing residents and fore and had little knowledge of the community and lead to vastly different poli­ York Police Department, which believes that tourists, Australia is confronted with sil fuels and the export of coal is sure A few years ago, the Australia­In­ country. My friends warned me that I cy imperatives. Three attacks last year, one radicalisation has four steps. The first stage, a dystopian vision, where “apoca­ to intensify in the days to come. dia Institute at the University of Mel­ was literally going “Down Under”, in the U.K. and two in the U.S.’s military facil­ pre­radicalisation, assumes an individual to lypse becomes the new normal”, to As two economies with a great sta­ bourne, in partnership with the Syd­ soon to become irrelevant and mar­ ities, illustrate this point clearly. be a blank slate, at best, or an eager receptor, borrow the title of a recent op­ed by keholding in fossil fuels, it is critical ney­based Lowy Institute, ginal to all policy issues in India. At at worst. This is followed by self­identifica­ Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman. for India and Australia to ensure that commissioned one of the most com­ school, my teenage daughters were Complex reality tion where he or she realises the uniqueness their dialogue on energy acquires prehensive surveys of Indian public told they risked being bashed up in The stabbing at London Bridge in the U.K., of his or her identity. Then comes the stage Dialogue on energy momentum. This will require a joint opinion on key foreign policy issues school and college, and my extended and the shootings at Joint Base Pearl Harbor­ of indoctrination and, finally, jihadisation. At this moment of crisis, and while scientific task force to disinter the lat­ and critical challenges of gover­ family was astounded. But today I Hickam and Pensacola Naval Air Station in Conversely, a major element of a person the tragedy of the bushfires is still un­ est evidence linking climate change nance. Indians ranked Australia in have no doubt that it was one of the the U.S., were all quickly characterised by committing murder in the pursuit of an al­ folding, New Delhi and Canberra and extreme climatic events with fos­ the top four nations towards which best decisions of my life. With not sections of the media and by analysts as leged political objective is what I call ‘radica­ have a rare opportunity: to translate sil fuels and to study the promise and they feel most warmly. Only the U.S., one unpleasant experience in the ‘lone wolf’ attacks. The reality is more com­ lising cumulatives’, an aggregation of fac­ their rapidly converging interests potential of “clean” coal technology. Singapore and Japan ranked higher. country, as a family we have found plex. Though all three cases are still under tors, structural and causal, that may push and coalescing of values into a for­ Both countries must simultaneously Today, Indians feel warmer towards Australians open, friendly, fair, ac­ investigation, news reports establish the fact him to do this. Of course, the final cognitive midable partnership for the 21st cen­ strengthen the International Solar Australia than towards European cepting and generous, and the coun­ that Usman Khan, the London Bridge attack­ step of actually committing violence cannot tury. When I co­chaired the Australia Alliance and the search for other al­ countries and BRICS nations. try a model of good governance. er, was not a lone wolf . Khan, a radical be prejudged accurately every time. India Leadership Dialogue last ternative green fuels. Apart from being two English­ In her account of India­Australia preacher, had been arrested earlier in a ma­ The final issue is that of the divide bet­ month in Melbourne, the breadth The Leadership Dialogue also re­ speaking, multicultural, federal de­ bilateral relations, historian Meg jor counterterrorism operation. He had ween the state and the family. The state’s and depth of the relationship was cognised that we are living through a mocracies that believe in and respect Gurry relates how Arthur Tange, spent eight years in prison, before being re­ coercive institutions do not directly interfere evident, as was the scope for the fu­ period of immense turbulence, dis­ the rule of law, both have a strategic High Commissioner to India and one leased in December 2018, for plotting to into familial structures and hierarchies, ture in diverse areas, including the ruption and even subversion. For in­ interest in ensuring a free, open, in­ of Australia’s most formidable diplo­ bomb the London Stock Exchange. The at­ where the likelihood of influencing factors is grand challenges facing our planet. stance, the near overwhelming pre­ clusive and rules­based Indo­Pacific mats, wrote in 1965 to his Foreign Mi­ tack in the Pearl Harbor military base in Ha­ very high. A significant number of attacks Clearly, as a consequence of the sence of an illiberal, totalitarian region in which the principles of so­ nister, Paul Hasluck, that there was waii was also classified as a lone wolf attack, have been carried out by second generation bushfires, the debate on global China, increasingly unilateralist, in­ vereignty and territorial integrity are fertile ground between the two coun­ but since the attacker’s motive seemed to or later generations of immigrants. The pa­ warming, climate change and fossil terventionist and mercantilist and ensured. In addition, Indians are to­ tries, but “no one seems to know have been non­political, it may be classified triarchal nature of the immigrants’ families fuels is going to intensify in the willing to write its own rules, is the day the largest source of skilled mi­ what seed to plant”. More than 50 as homicide. Mohammad Al­Shamrani, who may be one of the reasons behind this phe­ weeks ahead, even while scientists single biggest challenge to our two grants in Australia and the economic years on, there are not only many was training to be a pilot at the Naval Air Sta­ nomena and this needs to be investigated grapple with the new evidence. Aus­ countries. Not even our thought relationship,