About

Dr. Nicole Matejic is an Author, PRVE (Preventing Radicalisation to Violent Extremism) Pracademic and National Security focused Behavioural Economist.

Nicole is an internationally recognised and trusted authority on forecasting and navigating national security related crisis and emergency management challenges in environments of converged hybrid risk and threat. Previously a regular instructor and guest speaker at NATO, Nicole is highly regarded for her work in distilling how groups influence the radicalisation of their followers towards non-violent and violent extremism; and in forecasting emergent tech's likely impacts.

Nicole is currently on secondment as a Principal Policy Advisor with the New Zealand Government's Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet - Christchurch Call Unit. She was previously the Principal Advisor for Violent Extremism with Digital Safety, at Te Tari Taiwhenua - the Department of Internal Affairs - also in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nicole's doctoral thesis 'The Radicalisation Cascade: Using Behavioural Economics to Understand how people are Influenced towards Violent Extremes by al-Qaeda and ISIS' considered the role of technology, particularly terrorist and violent extremist content in permissive environments that can influence people towards violence. Her current research focuses on the intersection of AI, GAI, AR/VR/MR/MX/XR, algorithmic influence, and the metaverse, and their potential influence on radicalisation, non-violent and violent extremism, cybercrime, information pollution and disturbances. She has a particular research interest in biometric psychographics and malign influence as potential vectors of influence-led radicalisation.

Nicole is an Adjunct Lecturer at Australia's Charles Sturt University in the School of Terrorism and Security Studies. Nicole is a Partner (National Security and Sovereign Risk) with Immuto Group. From 2020 to 2023, Nicole was a Non-Resident Fellow at The Brute Krulak Center for Innovation in Future Warfighting at the United States Marine Corps University.

A published author, Nicole's first book 'Social Media Rules of Engagement' was published by Wiley in 2015. She has several titles forthcoming: her thesis (scheduled for publication in 2024), 'The Hate Economy: The Lies People Sell that lead to Violence' (2024), and a memoir 'They Called Him Barney' (2025) recounting her family history surviving World War II before arriving in Australia as stateless refugees.