To develop an understanding of the practice of terrorism. How is terrorism defined? Does it work? The main objective is to understand first why terrorism arises (looking both at root causes, and political forces that `create'' terrorists and make societies vulnerable to different types of terrorism) and how it works or fails to work to generate political action. Also, we will look at how terrorism can be prevented.

Students should acquire a deeper understanding on the causes and consequences of terrorism. They should be able to analyse such a phenomenon in all of its complexity and should be able to distinguish different types of terrorism.

• Introduction/Overview and Definitions
• The State, the State-System and Terror
• Ethics of State and Non-state Terror
• Motivations for Terrorism
• Terrorist Psychology
• Terrorist Tactics
• The `New'' Terrorism? An Arab problem?
• The State-system and the Challenge of Contemporary Terrorism
• Global Policy Dilemmas
  

Course texts

• Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, 1998
• David Whittaker, The Terrorism Reader, 2001
• Noam Chomsky, 9-11 , 1998

Selection of required readings:

• Daniel Byman "The Logic of Ethnic Terrorism", Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , Volume 21, Issue 2, 1998
• Isabelle Duyveysten, "How New is the New Terrorism", Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , Volume 27, Number 5, 2004.
• Pavel Baev, "Instrumentalising Counterterrorism for Regime Consolidation in Putin''s Russia", Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , Volume 27, Number 4, 2004.
• Mia Bloom, "Palestinian Suicide Bombing: public support, market share and outbidding", Political Science Quarterly , Vol. 119, No. 1, Spring 2004.
• Andrew Kydd and Barbara Walter, "Sabotaging the Peace: the Politics of Extremist Violence", International Organization , Vol. 56, No. 2, Spring 2002.
• Jeroen Gunning, "Peace with Hamas? The Transforming potential of political participation", International Affairs , Vol. 80, No. 2, March 2004.
• Khaled Hroub, Hamas. Political Thought and Practice , 1998.
• Kazem Alamdari, "Terrorism cuts across the East and the West: deconstructing Lewis''s Orientalism", Third World Quarterly , Vol. 24, No. 1, 2003.
• William Shepard, "Sayyid Qutb''s Doctrine of Jahiliyya", International Journal of Middle East Studies , Vol. 35, No. 3, 2003.

MA in Globalisation, MA in International Relations
MA in International Security and Conflict Studies