Terror Laws: Asio, Counter-Terrorism and the Threat to Democracy

086840702X Jenny Hocking ,
086840702X, UNSW Press, October 2003, 304pp, PB , 235x155mm
Price: $39.95

This title develops themes first explored in Hocking’s 1993 title, Beyond Terrorism: The Development of the Australian Security State (Allen & Unwin).

The book starts by defining terrorism, describes Australian and international experiences since the Cold War, and puts terrorism and counter-terrorism into contemporary contexts both in Australia and internationally. The book looks at some specific cases, including the Hilton Hotel bombing, the Communist Party Dissolution Bill, Yugoslav separatist bombings, the bombing of Family Court judges in the 1980s, the emergence of special state squads in the 1970s, and the expansion of ASIO’s powers since September 11 and Bali.


Jenny Hocking is the Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University. She is the author of the very successful "Lionel Murphy: A Political Biography" (CUP, 1997).

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface: Rattling the authoritarian cage

  1. Terrorism, counter-terrorism and the rule of law
  2. The development of Australia’s internal security arrangements: the precursor to counter-terrorism
  3. Reassessing domestic security operations: from ‘subversion’ to ‘terrorism’
  4. Counter-terrorism as counter-insurgency
  5. The importance of being ‘terrorism’
  6. Counter-terrorism’s first wave: the pretext of terrorism
  7. Terrorism in Australia
  8. The renewal of counter-subversion
  9. Policing terrorism
  10. Crisis management: securing the state
  11. Terrorism, treason and tyranny: the second wave
  12. From intelligence to internment: ASIO’s ‘new limb’
  13. Counter-terrorism and democracy

Appendices

Endnotes

Bibliography

Index