POL 252B Terrorism and Political Violence
POL 252B: TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Spring 2008
WakeForestUniversity
Professor: Tom BristerOffice Hours: TR 10:00-12:00
Office: Tribble C-313
Phone: 758-5449Class Time: 1:00-2:00 MWF
Classroom: C-316
Email:
Course Overview
Although people have been talking about terrorism long before the events of September 11, 2001, the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York City came as a huge shock not only to citizens of the United States but to people around the world – some declared that the “world had changed forever”, others began speaking more and more of a new kind of “World War III”. The United States’ response to the events of 9/11 has also been extremely controversial, and we cannot help but see events in the news today in the shadow of that attack. People bandy about the word “terrorist” like they used to employ the term “communist”, but it is often clear that many who use the term would have a difficult time giving you a precise definition – and this includes many among the political elite who ought to know better.
This is a course about terrorism and political violence, with a special focus on America’s war on terrorism. One of our aims is to figure out just exactly what this term “terrorist” means so that we can recover it as a useful and precise concept and category for evaluating a certain type of political violence that has become ubiquitous in our 21st century world. To do this we need a lot of history and a lot of reading (!). Even then, the topic is so vast and complex that we will only be able to cover a small portion of possible themes.
We will begin with a history and overview of terrorism, followed by a study of the historical evolution of terrorism in Northern Ireland, Algeria, Palestine, and the United States. These cases illustrate a transformation of terrorist violence from ethno-nationalist to ideological and religious motives. Given the predominance of radical Islamic terrorism at present, we will devote a section of the course to the study of religion and its connection with terrorism and violence. This will help us to then examine the specific case of Al Qaeda and events leading up to and following the 911 attacks. These attacks took place in a changing global context, involving the tactic of suicide bombing, the use of global media, and the threat of the deployment of weapons of mass destruction. Along the way we will examine various ways that states have attempted to counter terrorist violence, with special attention to issues of constitutional democracy and the difficult tradeoffs among liberty, privacy, and security in modern societies.
The course will focus throughout on several important general questions. How do the weak fight the strong, and why do individuals or groups choose violent over nonviolent means to achieve their political goals? Is terrorism a political crime, or is it actually a new (or old) kind of warfare? What exactly do we mean by a “war on terrorism”? What is the nature of the threat facing the United States and other countries today? Our description and our diagnosis of the problem is an important part of formulating a "prescription" for countering it. As we will see, there are very different perspectives on this important global issue. By the end of the course you should have both a solid grounding in terrorism as a more general historical and global phenomenon as well as a more sophisticated means of evaluating rhetoric surrounding the ongoing 'war on terrorism'.
Books and Readings
Hoffman, Bruce. Inside Terrorism: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 2006
Russell D. Howard et al, Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Understanding the New Security Environment, McGraw Hill, 2006.
Jessica Stern, Terror in the Name of God, Harper Collins, 2003
Larence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006
Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine, Simon & Schuster, 2006
*Other readings will be on blackboard (under “readings”)
We will use the MIPT Terrorism Data Base for information on the terrorist groups that we study
We will also refer to information from the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism (US Department of State)
It may occasionally be necessary to adjust some readings; any changes will be announced in class, on blackboard, and by email.
Assignments
Midterm15 %(2/13)
Essay One15 %(3/2)
Essay Two15 %(4/10)
Research Paper20 %(4/24)
Final Exam20 %(5/2)
Participation10 %
Short Reading Quizzes5 %
Film Schedule:
-Bloody Sunday1/29
-Battle of Algiers1/31
-Weather Underground2/14
-Death in Gaza4/13
Class Policies
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION
Attendance and participation is worth 10% of your grade. In addition to any excused absences (official WFU events, family emergencies, illness, etc.) you are allowed three unexcused absences.
LAPTOPS
The policy of the department of political science is that laptop computers only be used in classrooms for note taking and other academic purposes as designated by the instructor. Individual faculty members further reserve the right to ban computer use in their courses, should this policy be violated.
MAKEUP TESTS
Makeup tests are only allowed for extreme emergencies.
LATE PAPERS
You can still receive some credit for late papers up to a certain time limit - each day late results in a penalty of one grade level.
SPECIAL NEEDS
Any student requiring special accommodations for tests or class should let me know as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made. It is your responsibility to inform me in a timely manner.
SYLLABUS CHANGES
It may be necessary to make some small adjustments to the syllabus from time to time, but any changes will be communicated in class, on blackboard, and via email.
Calendar of Topics
1. 1/16 (W)Introduction
I. TERRORISM IN CONTEXT
2. 1/18 (F) Political Action: From Political Order to Political Violence
*James Danziger, “Political Violence”, in Understanding the Political World, pp. 325-357
Martha Crenshaw, "The Logic of Terrorism" (54-66) in Terrorism and Counterterrorism
**1/21 (M) MLK Holiday
3. 1/23 (W)From Zealots to Anarchists
Hoffman, pp. 1-20; 83-84
*"For Jihadist, Read Anarchist", The Economist, August 20, 2005, pp. 17-20
4. 1/25 (F)Defining Our Terms
Hoffman, pp. 20-41
Paul Pillar, "The Dimensions of Terrorism and Counterterrorism" (24-45) and Eqbal Ahmad , "Terrorism: Theirs & Ours" (46-52), in Terrorism and Counterterrorism.
*Browse US Designated “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” (FTOs) online
II. ETHNO-NATIONALIST TERRORISM
5. 1/28 (M)Easter Sunday 1916 and the rise of ethno nationalist terrorism
*BBC "Northern Ireland:The Troubles" website: read "The Road to Northern Ireland: 1167-1921
FilmShowing (Tuesday 1/29)"Bloody Sunday"
6. 1/30 (W)"Bloody Sunday" and the IRA
*BBC "Northern Ireland:The Troubles" website: read "The Troubles, 1963-1985" and "Fact Files" on major paramilitary groups
*"From Process to Procession", Economist, April 16, 1998
*"The Good Friday Agreement", Northern Ireland Office
*"A Time of Peace", Economist, May 10, 2007
MIPT Group Profiles (browse on website)
“Official IRA”
“Irish Republican Army”
Film Discussion: "Bloody Sunday"
Film Showing (Thursday 1/31): "Battle of Algiers"
7. 2/1 (F)"The Battle of Algiers"
Hoffman, pp. 56-65
Film Discussion: The Battle of Algiers
8. 2/4 (M)The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Hoffman, pp. 43-53
Reading TBA
9. 2/6 (W)The PLO and the Internationalization of Terrorism
Hoffman, pp. 63-70
*”The Palestinian National Charter” 1968 (online blackboard)
*Thomas Friedman, "The Teflon Guerrilla", in From Beirut to Lebanon
10. 2/8 (F)Messianic Zionism and Hamas
Hoffman, pp. 97-101
Stern, pp. 32-62; 85-106
*Hamas Covenant of 1988 (skim online)
11. 2/11 (M)catch up and review
12. 2/13 (W)MIDTERM
Film Showing: "Weather Underground" (Thursday evening 2/14)
III. TERRORISM IN THE UNITED STATES?
13. 2/15 (F)The Way the Wind Blew: Weather Underground
Hoffman, pp. 71-80
*Jeremy Varon, “Agents of Necessity” (20-73), Bringing the War Home, University of California Press, 2004.
MIPT Group Profiles (browse on website)
“Baader/Meinhof Gang”
“Japanese Red Army”
"Red Brigades"
Film Discussion: "Weather Underground"
14. 2/18 (M)The Radical Right and Oklahoma City
Hoffman, pp. 101-118
Stern, pp. 9-31
15. 2/20 (W)"Soldiers in the Army of God"
In class film: "Soldiers in the Army of God" (not at library or blockbuster so this is important)
16. 2/22 (F)1968 to 1995: Terrorism is U.S.?
Film Discussion: Soldiers in the Army of God
Stern, pp. 147-171
IV. “EXOTIC TERRORISM”
17. 2/25 (M)AUM, ELF, and the Unabomber
Hoffman, pp. 118-127
*Walter Laquer, "Exotic Terrorism", in The New Terrorism
*Stephan Leader and Peter Probst, "The Earth Liberation Front and Environmental Terrorism", Terrorism and Political Violence, Winter 2003
*"The Unabomber Manifesto" (SKIM online)
MIPT:
-Earth Liberation Front
-Aum Shinri Kyo
18. 2/27 (W)The Convergence?
Terrorism and Counterterrorism:
-Barry McCaffrey and John Basso, "Narcotics, Terrorism and International Crime: The Convergence Phenomenon" (322-336)
- Chris Dishman, "The Leaderless Nexus: When Crime and Terror Converge" (367-382)
**SHORT ESSAY due Sunday 3/2
V. RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE
19. 2/29 (F)Kashmir
Stern, pp. 107-137; 188-236
20. 3/3 (M)Hizbollah
*PBS Frontline: read website article
*Anwar Rivzi, "Iran and Hizbollah: The Cash Nexus", Open Democracy, July 27, 2007.
*Vali Nasr, "When the Shiites Rise", Foreign Affairs
MIPT Profile on Hezbollah (skim online)
*The Hizbollah Doctrine 1985 (skim online)
21. 3/5 (W)Religion and Violence
Terrorism and Counterterrorism
-Magnus Ranstorp, "Terrorism in the Name of Religion" (153-167)
Mark Juergensmeyer, "The Logic of Religious Violence" (168-186)
Discussion of Jessica Stern, Terror in the Name of God(read intro and conclusion to finish up; Al Qaeda sections are optional but useful in the next section)
22. 3/7 (F)catch up and review
**Spring Break 3/10 – 3/16
VI. THE GLOBAL “WAR ON TERROR”
23. 3/17 (M)Jihad v Mcworld?
Terrorism and Counterterrorism
-Audrey Kurth Cronin, "Behind the Curve: Globalization and International Terrorism", (67-88)
-John Arquilla et al, "Networks, Netwar, and Information-Age Terrorism", (107-129)
24. 3/19 (W)Declaration of Jihad
The Looming Tower, 1-59
Quintan Wiktorowicz, "A Genealogy of Radical Islam" (207-229), Terrorism and Counterterrorism
*1996 and 1998 Declarations of Jihad (online)
*Bin Laden’s letter to America (online)
** 3/21 (F) NO CLASSES
25. 3/24 (M)“The Base”
Looming Tower, pp. 60-162
26. 3/26 (W)“Hijira”
Looming Tower, pp. 163-236
27. 3/28 (F)“The Looming Tower
Looming Tower, pp. 237-332
28. 3/31 (M)The Response
The One Percent Doctrine, pp. 1-162
29. 4/2 (W)One Percent Doctrine
The One Percent Doctrine, pp. 163-348
30. 4/4 (F)no class
31. 4/7 (M)Liquid War?
Terrorism and Counterterrorism
-Rohan Gunaratna, "Post-Madrid Face of Al Qaeda" (130-136)
-Mark Basile, "Going to the Source: Why Al Qaeda's Financial Network Is Likely to Withstand the Current War on Terror Financing" (416-432)
*“Geopolitical Diary: The Reality of Al Qaeda’s Resurgence”, Stratfor, July 13, 2007
**SHORT ESSAY DUE 4/10
VII. ISSUES IN MODERN TERRORISM
32. 4/9(W)Proliferation of WMD
Terrorism and Counterterrorism:
-Richard Betts, "The New Threat of Mass Destruction" (232-241)
-Adam Dolnik, "All God's Poisons: Re-Evaluating the Threat of Religious Terrorism With Respect to Non-Conventional Weapons" (242-262)
-Michael Eastman and Robert Brown, "Security Strategy in the GrayZone: Alternatives for Preventing WMD Handoff to Non-State Actors" (298-312)
33. 4/11 (F)Biological Terrorism
Terrorism and Counterterrorism
-Richard Pilch, "The Bioterrorist Threat in the United States" (263-297)
- John Ellis, "Terrorism in the Genomic Age" (313-319)
Film Showing: "Death in Gaza" 4/13 (Su)
34. 4/14 (M)Suicide Bombing
Hoffman, pp. 131-171
Ami Pedahzur, "Toward an Analytical Model of Suicide Terrorism - a Comment" (348- 351), Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Film Discussion: Death in Gaza
FYI: Campus Event: Film Showing and Discussion ofParadise Now(Tuesday 4/15)
35. 4/16 (W)Mass Media and New Media
Hoffman, pp. 173-228
Madeline Gruen, "Terrorism Indoctrination and Radicalization on the Internet" (352- 366),Terrorism and Counterterrorism
FYI: Campus Event: talk by Charles Kurzman (UNC-CH) on "The Challenges of Radical Islam" (April 16 at 5pm)
VIII. COUNTER-TERRORISM
36. 4/18 (F)Global Guerrillas and Fourth Generation War
Richard Betts, "The Soft Underbelly of American Primacy: Tactical Advantages of Terror", Terrorism and Counterterrorism, (386-401)
Matthew Stannard, "Hezbollah Wages New Generation of Warfare", San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 2006.
37. 4/21 (M)How Do You Fight Global Terrorism?
Terrorism and Counterterrorism:
-Wayne A. Downing, "The Global War on Terrorism: Re-Focusing the National Strategy" (435-453)
-Barry Posen, "The Struggle Against Terrorism: Grand Strategy, Strategy, and Tactics" (461-473)
-Paul R. Pillar, "Counterterrorism after Al Qaeda" (474-483)
-Martha Crenshaw, "Counterterrorism Policy and the Political Process (496-504)
38. 4/23 (W)Terrorism and Constitutional Democracy: Liberty versus Security?
*"The Stuff of Nightmares", Economist, October 4, 2007.
*"Learning to Live With Big Brother", Economist, September 27, 2007
*"Is Torture Ever Justified?", Economist, September 20, 2007
Bruce Hoffman, "A Nasty Business" (402-407), Terrorism and Counterterrorism
RESEARCH PAPER due 4/24
39. 4/25 (F)simulation or group activity
40. 4/28 (M)simulation or group activity
41. 4/30 (W) How It All Ends?
Hoffman, pp. 257-295
Steven Simon and Jeff Martini, "Terrorism: Denying Al Qaeda Its Popular Support", (484-494), Terrorism and Counterterrorism
*Mueller, John. "Six Rather Unusual Propositions About Terrorism." Terrorism and Political Violence 17 (2005): 487-505.
FINAL EXAM ( May 2 at 2:00)
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