Report on Roles and Functions in Terrorist Groups as They Relate to the Likelihood of Exit (original) (raw)
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IPS 6055: Terrorism and Conflict: Issues and Perspectives
1. Course Description: Terrorism is one of the most elusive concepts to define. Definition of Terrorism is controversial for reasons other than conceptual issues and problems. Because labeling actions as terrorism promotes condemnation of the actors, a definition may reflect ideological or political bias. Once freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela were also labeled as terrorists. In this course we will focus on terrorism and related forms of political violence from a comparative and global perspective. This course will provide a theoretical and empirical understanding and explanation of terrorism. It will try to look at definitions, the prevalence of terrorism, techniques, the choice of targets, the effects of the media, and sources of support. The course will also look at different types of terrorist organizations including ones that are primarily seeking to attain ideological objectives, groups with an ethnic or nationalist agenda, organizations with religious motivations, and those groups with a mixture of motives that are difficult to disentangle. A portion of the course will also look at the state sponsored terrorism. In addition, it will look at counterterrorism and counterinsurgency techniques, including the effects that such activities can have on civil liberties. Finally, the relative success or failure of terrorist groups in achieving their objectives will be evaluated as part of the process of determining what the future is likely to hold. 2. Course Objectives: The learning objectives for the course include but are not limited to: i. Develop a basic understanding of terrorism—including its causes and consequences ii. Introduce students to the history of terrorism and the landscape of terrorist groups iii. Familiarize students with the main themes and debates in the academic literature on terrorism iv. Place terrorism as a technique within the broader context of conflicts in political society, v. Sensitize students to the methodological challenges involved in the study of terrorism vi. Equip students with perspectives and tools to better understand the behaviour of terrorist groups vii. Evaluate the relative success (or failure) of terrorist groups in terms of achieving their goals or achieving some positive (from the their perspective) objectives, viii. Equip students to think critically about past, present, and future terrorism events and analyze them within an appropriate context, and ix. Evaluate what the future of terrorism will be.
An Introduction to Terrorism Research
Research on Terrorism: Trends, Achievements and Failures, 2004
At a time when there is an increasing sense of paranoia regarding terrorism, there is a critical need for balanced, expert and informed research into this subject. Good research can provide powerful tools for insight and guidance on what has become one of the most challenging problems of the modern age, yet good research has often been desperately lacking. This chapter introduces efforts to assess the state and nature of research on terrorism. In doing so, key issues surrounding the conduct and application of terrorism research are examined. The focus of this volume is ultimately to present a clear and succinct view of the major problems facing terrorism research, to look at recent trends, on strengths and weaknesses and on the impact terrorism research is having (or is failing to have) in a world after 9/11.
Promise and pitfalls of terrorism research
2011
Using a database of recent articles published in prominent political science journals, we show the rapid increase in terrorism research. Given this increased awareness and attention, we identify several problems that still plague the study of political terrorism including definitional problems that lack empirical tests, not distinguishing among different types of terrorism, and using the wrong unit of analysis when designing research.
The future of terrorism research: a review essay
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 2014
This essay sets forth a research agenda to begin filling some key gaps in terrorism studies. Since the September 2001 Al Qaeda attacks against the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon that claimed over 3000 lives, interest in terrorism research has increased. After these attacks, the United States and other governments prioritized the scientific study of the causes of and responses to terrorism. Importantly though, our review of the terrorism literature demonstrates that despite this progress, intriguing questions remain underexplored or altogether unexplored. This essay identifies four gaps in terrorism studies: (1) employing non-terrorist comparison groups, (2) broadening the dependent variable (focus of study), (3) exploring exceptions/anomalies to "established" findings, and (4) engaging measurement issues. We discuss these issues and outline a research agenda that could begin to fill these gaps.
This survey of terrorism research focused on research studies published in the first five years after the 9/11 attacks. It highlights a number of positive trends which can be seen in this initial period after 9/11. To begin with, it is clear that more researchers are working on the subject than before and there has been a real increase in collaborative studies. This allows studies to be more ambitious in both data-collection and data analysis, though there has only been a very small shift away from literature review-based research. There has, however, been a much more promising increase in the use of descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The use of inferential statistics on terrorism data in particular has more than trebled since 9/11, a trend which can only help improve the reliability and validity of the conclusions being reached by researchers. Admittedly, this is an increase starting from an extremely low level indeed (and still compares poorly to core journals in other areas) but it is unquestionably a major step in the right direction.
PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume II, Issue 4 How to Define Terrorism
Terrorist insurgencies, in all their configurations and local conflicts, constitute the primary warfare threat facing the international community. This is especially the case following September 2001, when al Qaida demonstrated that it had world class ambitions to inflict catastrophic damages on its adversaries. In other conflicts, such as the Palestinian-Israeli arena, terrorist rebellions are primarily localized. Because of the worldwide reach of al Qaida and its affiliates, including the spontaneous emergence of al Qaida-inspired groupings and cells in Western Europe, North America, and elsewhere, many nations have been upgrading their homeland security defenses and calling on their academic communities to provide analytical understanding of the nature and magnitude of the threat and how to counteract and resolve it. As a result, terrorism courses, research institutes and certificate programs have been proliferating at universities and other academic institutions around the world. Despite the great attention being devoted to terrorism studies; however, there is no consensus about the most fundamental starting point in terrorism studies: how to define terrorism.