Why Social Cohesion is a Board-Level Security Risk

In 2026, the definition of “security” for Australian organisations has expanded far beyond the technical silos of ICT and cyber. As part of Agilient’s constant environmental scanning of the threat and risk landscape, we have reviewed critical strategic assessments—including the 2026 ASPI report, Social Insecurity, and the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer.

The findings are stark: Australia’s social cohesion is under sustained pressure from a “turbocharged” outrage economy and widening trust deficits. For leadership teams across Federal, State, and Local Government, as well as the private sector, this is a holistic strategic risk.

When social fractures deepen, they create a permissive environment that impacts all security domains. “Social cohesion should be treated as a core pillar of national security” (ASPI). Modern firms must navigate a landscape where “online hostility rapidly collapses into offline harm,” manifesting as physical intimidation, insider threats, and supply chain interference (ASPI).

The Strategic Context: Impact Across All Security Domains

Traditional security models often fail to account for how social disunity erodes the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) domains. Agilient’s review highlights how the current environment impacts the full spectrum of security:

• Personnel Security: Radicalisation pathways are “faster and more individualised,” often involving “pick-and-mix belief packages assembled online” (ASPI). This increases the risk of the “trusted insider” who may be self-directed and motivated by a “sense of grievance” against institutional systems (ASPI).
• Physical Security: Online outrage frequently triggers “offline confrontation” (ASPI). We are seeing a rise in “physical intimidation in homes, schools, and civic venues,” where “emotive captions can trigger intimidation… before authorities have established basic facts” (ASPI).
• Governance & Information Security: Globally, “7 in 10 are unwilling or hesitant to trust someone who is different from them” (Edelman). This “trust gap” undermines the legitimacy of security policies and leads to a “readiness to substitute influence (and influencers) for evidence and analysis” (ASPI).
• Supply Chain Security: Adversaries exploit domestic fractures to “deepen Australian disunity” (ASPI). This can manifest as “nationalism” where citizens “support reducing the number of foreign companies operating in my country even if it meant higher prices,” potentially disrupting critical service delivery (Edelman).

Evolving Threats: Fixated Persons, Sovereign Citizens, and Group Exploitation

The 2026 threat landscape is complicated by individuals and groups who leverage social instability. Agilient integrates these specific profiles into our Security Risk Management services:

• Fixated Individuals and Mental Health: Behavioural cues are now more predictive than group membership. We monitor for “behavioural cues, including sudden capability acquisition or target fixation” (ASPI). Vulnerabilities related to mental health or substance abuse can be exploited by “grievance entrepreneurs” who “feed and leverage those grievances for personal and ideological gain” (ASPI).
• Sovereign Citizens: There is an increasing trend where “sovereign-citizen and broader anti-authority milieus merge into accelerationist ethno-nationalist currents” (ASPI). These actors use “pseudo-legal myths” to provide a “vocabulary for resisting fines, compliance, or court orders,” often leading to physical security flashpoints at government facilities (ASPI).
• Exploitation by Issue-Motivated Groups: Protest ecology has shifted. “Demonstrations are more networked, less centrally led, and more likely to draw together disparate causes through single-issue outrage frames” (ASPI). These groups can rapidly “assemble large, ideologically mixed crowds around a single grievance frame before facts are established” (ASPI).

What This Means for Government and Industry

Federal, State, and Local Government

For government entities, “legitimacy is capability” (ASPI).

• Federal: Must lead on “national resilience communications” to counter “exploitative foreign interference” and the contamination of media with falsehoods (ASPI).
• State: Faces complex public-order dilemmas where “rival groups occupy adjacent spaces” and police neutrality is “routinely attacked” (ASPI).
• Local: Often the front line for “grievance entrepreneurs,” where council meetings and local planning disputes become “national flashpoints within hours” (ASPI).

Agilient’s Core Industries

• Critical Infrastructure & Energy: Social policy is often pulled toward “symbolic wins and punitive gestures,” yet infrastructure assets remain primary targets for “campaigns against specific… projects [that] can evolve into broader anti-system movements” (ASPI).
• Healthcare & Medical: Hospitals and clinics are increasingly exposed to “physical intimidation” driven by misinformation (ASPI). Our Physical Security Consulting helps secure these sensitive environments.
• Higher Education & Research: Universities are at the centre of the “marketplace of attention” (ASPI). Managing “nuance as a democratic capability” is essential for campus safety and digital integrity (ASPI).

Practical Examples: Improving Holistic Security

Managing security in this fractured landscape requires shifting from a reactive posture to one that actively shapes the environment through legitimacy and clarity.

1. Suitability Beyond Background Checks: In the Personnel domain, don’t just rely on criminal history. Implement Agilient’s insider risk assessments to identify behavioural cues, such as “sudden capability acquisition” (ASPI).
2. Physical De-Clustering: To mitigate physical threats from fixated persons or groups, Agilient recommends “de-clustering of key assets”—spreading infrastructure across multiple sites to increase resilience against targeted intimidation (ASPI).
3. Slow-Lane Protocol for Crises: In your Crisis & Emergency Management plans, include a protocol to “hold definitive comments for a few hours while facts are verified” (ASPI). Use “plain-language context cards” to prevent misinformation from triggering a physical security breach (ASPI).
4. Trust Brokering in the Workplace: Use Agilient’s GRC services to scale “trust brokering.” Edelman data shows employers are the most trusted institution (“78% trust globally”), giving you a unique lever to “build teams that will require people with different values to work together to succeed” (Edelman).

How Agilient Can Assist

Agilient understands that national resilience is built not just by “laws passed, but by norms defended and institutions trusted” (ASPI). We help firms navigate the intersection of social cohesion and holistic security.

Our services are designed to address the full breadth of the latest environmental scanning:

• Holistic Security Threat, Risk & Social Cohesion Assessments: Identifying trust deficits and grievance narratives that could manifest as personnel or physical security risks.
• Legitimacy-Centred Physical Security: Ensuring measures are “proportionate, data-driven, and independently verified” to maintain your organisational “social licence” (ASPI). Put in place advanced electronic security controls to address threat actors.
• Crisis Simulation & Resilience “Red-Teaming”: Rehearsing “slow-lane protocols” through exercise, both contested and uncontested, to ensure your leadership can “handle the truth about security threats” and manage fast, networked crises (ASPI).
• Personnel Security & Critical Worker Suitability: Developing programs that go beyond compliance to manage the “trusted insider” threat in an age of “pick-and-mix” belief systems (ASPI).

National Resilience FAQs

Why is social cohesion a security issue?

Social cohesion underpins stability within a society. When trust between communities erodes, divisions can deepen and make it easier for intimidation, radicalisation, and violence to take hold. Analysts describe this as creating a “permissive environment”, where hostility toward people, institutions, or infrastructure becomes easier to justify. Strengthening cohesion helps reduce the likelihood that social tensions escalate into security incidents.

What is “Trust Brokering”?

Trust brokering is the practice of building trust between groups with different perspectives or interests. It involves identifying shared priorities and helping each group understand the realities and concerns of others. By surfacing common ground and translating viewpoints, trust brokering enables cooperation across divides and strengthens collective responses to complex social or security challenges.

How does the “Outrage Economy” affect physical security?

The outrage economy describes how online platforms amplify emotionally charged content that generates engagement. This can rapidly spread grievances and accelerate “algorithmic mobilisation”, where online anger turns into coordinated offline action. As a result, security teams increasingly monitor digital signals to identify when online narratives may lead to protests, harassment, or physical confrontation.

Who are “Grievance Entrepreneurs”?

Grievance entrepreneurs are actors who deliberately amplify social or political grievances for ideological, financial, or personal gain. They often exploit sensitive issues or vulnerable audiences, using polarising narratives to mobilise support and deepen divisions. By feeding existing frustrations, they can intensify social tensions and increase the risk of conflict.