Terrorism and Counterterrorism

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Terrorism has gone from a persistent yet marginal security concern to one of the most important problems of our day. As the September 11, 2001 attacks made clear, terrorists can and will kill thousands to pursue their ends. In addition to threatening the United States, terrorists menace governments worldwide: indeed, there are few if any countries that do not suffer from some form of terrorism. In the Middle East, wars involving terrorist groups have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Terrorism also constantly evolved, with new groups like the Islamic State posing distinct counterterrorism challenges for the governments that oppose it. Yet at the same time terrorists make many foolish mistakes, and the threat is often hyped or at least misunderstood. Countries like the United States have an array of counterterrorism instruments available to them. Some, like the deployment of conventional military forces, are blunt instruments that are effective in some circumstances but come with many risks and limits. Others, like disruption via intelligence services, are often conducted in the shadows, and their importance is underestimated. This course examines a wide range of questions in order to provide students with a deeper understanding of the threat of terrorism today. Among the questions it examines are: What is terrorism? How has the threat of terrorism changed over time? What motivates different types of terrorist groups? When does terrorism succeed and fail? How can terrorism best be fought? This course explores the nature of terrorism, the motivations of terrorists, and the tactics that terrorists use. It surveys state-sponsored terrorist groups, as well as several leading past and current radical groups such as the Provisional IRA, Hamas, Hizballah, Al Qaeda, and the Islamic State. The final weeks of the course will assess different methods of countering terrorism, ranging from law enforcement to covert action, but counterterrorism is also woven into the earlier sections that examine various groups. Students are not expected to have a strong background on terrorism or counterterrorism.