Terrorism Financing in Foreign Conflict Zones

The misuse of charities to finance terrorism can pose a risk to South East Asian regional security. Humanitarian aid that is delivered through local charitable delivery partners specifically to foreign conflict zones carries a high risk of subversion. Recently, allegations that Australian charitable funds were misused to support terrorism overseas have been in the news. This article discusses the Australian case and suggests situation sensitive risk assessments and preventive measures to address this problem. In particular, a government can impose stricter accountability conditions to deter misuse of public funds it delivers to conflict zones abroad through humanitarian charities.