Since the attacks on the World Trade Centre in the United States in September 2001, the spectre of terrorism and the ‘War on Terror’ have reshaped and dominated domestic politics in the Global North and international politics more generally. The rise, and relative fall, of the Islamic State, the growing threat of homegrown Salafi jihadists and Far-Right radicals have exacerbated the feeling that terrorism is a fundamental menace to “our way of life.” Terrorism, and the responses to it, have thus become woven into the fabric of our societies. This course engages with some of the most critical questions that have emerged from this milieu in Western democracies.
This course is an advanced study of terrorism and counterterrorism, straddling politics, international relations and critical terrorism studies. Thus, the course provides insights into terrorists’ ideologies, motives and strategies and key counterterrorism policies and practices. But it also questions the political underpinnings that motivate terrorists and shape states' responses to it. Terrorism is seen as a socially constructed category that needs to be explained within a critical analysis of the sociopolitical context from which it originates. Likewise, counterterrorism is not only seen as a set of policies to mediate the terror threat but as part of broader debates on authority and legitimacy in the use of violence and the power of the state and a set of practices that have political and ethical repercussions for societies at large. This approach focuses on the nature and definition of terrorism, the politics of labelling ‘terrorist’ and the role that media and the internet play in constructing meaning. Indeed, meaning, in regard to terrorism, represents the base upon which counter-terror policymaking is drafted, justified and legitimised.
There are two parts to this course.
- The first part engages with terrorism. The first four weeks provide the conceptual and theoretical background for the course. They engage with the definitional complexity and ambiguity of terrorism and the role of the media and the internet in producing knowledge concerning terrorism, including normative understandings of what terrorism is or isn’t. They also consider the history of understandings of terrorism as a unique form of political violence, the various factors behind the use of the label ‘terrorism’, and the prevailing theories of terrorism causation. Weeks five, six and seven engage with case studies. These latter present students with the opportunity to apply some of the learning accrued while learning about the main facets of contemporary global terrorism.
- The second part of the course focuses on counterterrorism and opens with a seminar on the main approaches to counterterrorism. The remaining seminars critically evaluate the operational successes and ethical dilemmas of the ‘War on Terror,’ the implication of the rise of the security state in Western democracies and the ramification of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs. The latter three weeks entail case studies and a student-led approach to learning. The course ends with a reflection on whether terrorism is a threat to our way of life.