Int'l Terrorsm/Transntnl Crime

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

What is a hybrid? It is a course that is done partially online and partially in the face to face environment. In fact it is the best of both worlds. You can meet and greet your professor and classmates in person and also have the luxury of working on line and really get to do some in-depth research on a topic or discussion question. This means that every other weekly session will be held online and be discussed in the online discussion boards. During these weeks we will not meet in our regularly scheduled campus classroom. Instead, students will research a discussion topic and present it in the following week’s face to face session. The first class is face to face and the second class is online. We come back to the third class prepared to discuss the assigned discussion topics. We will follow this f2f/online formula until the end of the semester. The last face to face session will be the in-class final examination. The final will be a comprehensive exam and will be based on the required readings. If students have kept up with the weekly reading, they should not have any problem with the final. During on-line session weeks, students are expected to fully participate in the discussion boards and complete any required course research necessary and bring their answers with them to the following week f2f session. The advantage to a hybrid course is that students only have to be on campus in person for half the time as other traditional f2f courses, thus giving you more time for individual online research. This course is designed to broaden individual understanding of the ever changing nature of international terrorism and transnational crime and its consequences on American society at large. Further, the course will also cover the present-day U.S. domestic and external responses to terrorism and crime and focus on the rise of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. We will begin by studying the definition and nature of terrorism, the U.S. national security policy response to this phenomenon, and the development of programs and policies by the federal government to prevent or thwart terrorist attacks in the future. We will focus on the rise of modern day terrorism and briefly cover terrorism in all its forms (political, ethno-nationalist, and religious). Finally, we will focus on trends in modern terrorism, especially the illegal proliferation of WMD and what the U.S. can do (or is doing) to counter such trends. This course will emphasize student understanding of the evolving issue of terrorism and make some projections as to its future direction and what the world can and must do about it. We will also investigate the modern phenomenon of transnational crime from identity theft and cigarette smuggling to human trafficking. We will invite in key law enforcement officials to speak to the class as guest lecturers during scheduled f2f sessions.