Terrorism has taken a back seat as the world deals with COVID-19 but the threat remains, one of Australia's leading security experts warns.
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And terrorism is only one of the areas Australia should monitor, with climate change and space exploration completing the trifecta for former ASIO boss Duncan Lewis.
"It's a very unfortunate conclusion that many come to that terrorism is fixed. It is not. It's not fixed at all," Australia's first national security advisor, diplomat, military officer and intelligence chief said overnight.
"We've seen the end of a phase, the military operations in the Middle East, but the 'idea' that we were trying to defeat lives on.
"Terrorism is here and it's here to stay for the foreseeable future and we will need to be very careful not to take our eye off the ball."
Mr Lewis told the ANU's National Security College on Thursday night that the Middle East remained "a tinderbox".
Even though it wasn't a terror event, the Beirut blast has potential to stir troubles, he added.
"You can see how an event like that all of a sudden surfaces all of the tensions and difficulties that exist between the sects and between the various religious groups. All of that is still alive."
Climate change was also a top-three threat for Mr Lewis.
"The science is very clear and we are going to have to be very careful the way we move forward with regard to the discontinuities that climate change will bring," he said.
"My concern ... as a security practitioner is what is the discontinuity this climate change brings? Is it going to mean huge population shifts? Is it going to mean that large, densely-populated areas are going to go under water?"
National security should also be concerned with space, Mr Lewis noted.
"Sadly, we took our eyes off the ball for a number of decades and it's only recently that governments have started to concentrate on this again.
"(Space) is an area where we will need to pay a lot of attention and we do have something to contribute here. And we do have much to gain."
The uncertainties of COVID-19 have made Australia vulnerable, with a "grim" outlook, and relationships with strategic allies will be important, Mr Lewis said.
"We need to harden up because the world is going to get pretty tough ... in the next few years.
"Grimness is not resignation to defeat, that we're all ruined ... this is recoverable but we need to work very hard at it."
Australian Associated Press
