Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines are worried about a rise in pro-ISIS cells and plots as ISIS comes under increasing attack in the Middle East. They are also increasingly anxious about the potential impact of returning fighters with the skills, credibility, and international networks that could significantly improve the capacity of would-be terrorists in the region. Indonesia was jolted by the arrest near Jakarta in December 2016 of two women planning to be suicide bombers and the discovery of radical cells among migrant maids working in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In her lecture, Sidney Jones will examine the risk of violence from pro-ISIS groups in Southeast Asia, how the threat is evolving, and what governments and civil society groups are doing to counter it.
George Soros Visiting Practitioner Chair Sidney Jones is director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta. She previously worked for the International Crisis Group in Jakarta as senior adviser (2007-13) and Southeast Asia project director (2002-07). Between 1989 and 2002, Jones was executive director, Asia Division at Human Rights Watch in New York. An expert on conflict and extremism in South-East Asia, particularly Indonesia, Jones received an honorary doctorate from the New School in New York in 2006.