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Tuesday, 13 April 2004

The University of Adelaide is taking a lead role in the field of strategic studies by hosting an Asymmetric Warfare Symposium in the Middle East this week for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces.

Organised by the university's Centre for Professional and Continuing Education, in cooperation with Adelaide-based company Specialist Training Australia, the two-day symposium aims to place the notion of asymmetric warfare in a broader social, defence, intelligence and international relations context.

"We will be looking at the nexus between international and domestic factors and examine the subtle and overt interplay between them," says Dr John Bruni, Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Adelaide's Centre for Asian Studies, and convener of the symposium.

Dr Bruni is currently in Abu Dhabi for the event.

"The uniqueness of this particular symposium is that it is interdisciplinary in outlook, with experts from a number of separate fields coming together with the express purpose of sharing information and building networks," he says.

Asymmetric warfare is a term used to describe how weak nations and groups such as terrorist organisations seek to leverage strength from studying and attacking the vulnerabilities of their opponents. It is a way to circumvent or undermine the strength of the opponent by attacking in unforeseen or unplanned methods, such as the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Around 120 people were expected to attend the Asymmetric Warfare Symposium, with delegates made up of defence force personnel and senior members of various government ministries from the Gulf region.