Module Identifier IPM1930  
Module Title CRITICAL APPROACHES TO TERRORISM (S)  
Academic Year 2005/2006  
Co-ordinator Dr Jeroen W Gunning  
Semester Semester 1  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   (1 x 2 hour seminar per week)  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam3 Hours  60%
Semester Assessment Essay: 1 x 3,000 words  40%
Supplementary Exam Students may, subject to Faculty approval, have the opportunity to resit this module, normally during the supplementary examination period. For further clarification please contact the Teaching Programme Administrator in the Department of International Politics. 

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
- Critically assess the different definitions and manifestations of terrorism, and their relationship to other forms of violence and political action

- Critically assess the different definitions and manifestations of terrorism, and their relationship to other forms of violence and political action
- Apply the main theoretical perspectives on the state and the international system to the issues surrounding contemporary terrorism
- Demonstrate an insight into the constructedness of the conventional distinctions between state and non-state, military and civilian, war and terrorism
- Display an insight into the linkage between the development of terrorism, the modern state and the international system
- Critically evaluate the causes, ideologies, social make-up, structures, political economy and methods of any organisation employing terrorism
- Discuss and evaluate the core ethical issues surrounding terrorism and state responses to terrorism

- Apply the main theoretical perspectives on the state and the international system to the issues surrounding contemporary terrorism

- Demonstrate an insight into the constructedness of the conventional distinctions between state and non-state, military and civilian, war and terrorism

- Display an insight into the linkage between the development of terrorism, the modern state and the international system

- Critically evaluate the causes, ideologies, social make-up, structures, political economy and methods of any organisation employing terrorism

- Discuss and evaluate the core ethical issues surrounding terrorism and state responses to terrorism

Brief description

This module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of the nature, ethics and rationale of contemporary terrorism and counter terrorism measures, within the framework of the main theoretical perspectives on terrorism, the state and the international system.

Aims

This module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of contemporary terrorism: its different causes, rationales and clienteles; its relationship to other forms of violence (including warfare and criminal activity) and social protest; its embeddedness in the structures of the modern state and the international system; state responses to terrorism; and the ethical and practical dilemmas surrounding both terrorism and counter-terrorism. Through the prism of terrorism, students will be given the opportunity to apply and test theoretical perspectives on the state, the international system, political protest, war and the ethics of war. Students are expected to gain a critical understanding of the problematic surrounding the very concept of terrorism, and the constructedness of conventional conceptual distinctions between state and non-state, military and civilian, war and insurgency.

Content

The module is broadly divided into three subject areas. First, students will be given an understanding of terrorism as an historically specific and socially constituted form of violent political action, which evolved in interaction with the development of the modern state and the international system. Students will examine different typologies, sociologies and political economies of terrorist organisations, and study the structural, ideological and psychological factors that encourage people and states to employ terrorism, within the framework of the various theoretical approaches to state, power, legitimacy and the international system. Section two will critically assess military, legal, political and economical state responses to terrorism, with a particular view to their efficiency or self-perpetuating nature. The third section will focus on ethical issues surrounding terrorism and counter-terrorism, from the tension between ends and means, to issues of human rights and civil liberties, and the inevitable complicity of the media.

Transferable skills

Students have the opportunity to develop, practice and test a wide range of transferable skills that help them to understand, conceptualise and evaluate examples and ideas. Throughout the module, students should practice and develop their reading, comprehension and thinking skills, as well as self-management. In seminars, students enhance and develop their oral and analytical skills through presentations and discussions, and practice listening, explaining and debating skills. Essay writing encourages students to practice independent research, writing and IT skills and the examination will test these skills under time constraint conditions. Personal initiative will be encouraged through students having to decide (under guidance) the direction of their essay topic. Students will also be expected to work in groups, both in terms of seminar preparation and in seminar discussions. Transferable skills will be developed through the use of information technology, the use of various research resources and techniques, as well as the requirement to present work in a consistent and scholarly manner. Computer literacy will be facilitated by the extensive use of websites related to the topics covered in this module.

Reading Lists

Books
Adrian Guelke (1995) The Age of Terrorism and the International Political System London: Tauris
Walter Reich (1990) Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7