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Draft Syllabus
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from a European Perspective | DIS| Disciplines: International Relations, Political Science.
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from a European Perspective Spring 2017 Copenhagen
Core class: Yes Credits: 3
Study Tours: Århus (3 days, week 6) and Belfast/Brussels (Feb 25 – March 3) Disciplines: International Relations, Political Science
Faculty Member: Martin Cleemann Rasmussen ([email protected])
Program Director: Neringa Vendelbo ([email protected]) Program Assistant: Alex Berlin ([email protected])
Meeting Time: Monday/Thursday 10:05 – 11:25
Classroom: TBA
Description of course: Terrorism and counter-terrorism has been on everybody’s mind since 9/11. Terrorism, however, did not just appear unexpectedly on that horrifying September day. This course is a study of terrorism - its causes, aims, and forms - and of counterterrorism measures introduced by the international community and individual states. The course examines the implications of terrorism for international politics and the different approaches to countering it in the 21st century.
In order to better understand the concept and phenomenon of terrorism and attempts to fight it, we will look at some of the many terror attacks and attempts to deal with terrorism from a European perspective. It is both relevant and important to study terrorism from a European perspective, as (unfortunately) several European countries have a very long history of dealing with terrorism (e.g. Northern Ireland (IRA), Spain (ETA), Italy (Red Brigades), Germany (Red Army Faction), Russia (The People’s Will and The Black Widows)). This perspective will allow us to gain better insight as to why terrorism occurs, how terrorists organize and operate, and what some of the consequences are of reacting in different ways to terrorism.
Learning objectives of the course: By the end of this course students will be able to better understand why terrorism occurs, how terrorists organize and operate, and what some of the consequences are of reacting in different ways to terrorism.
Instructor: Martin Cleemann Rasmussen
MA (Russian and History, University of Copenhagen 2004, graduated on Civil-Military relations in Russia, 1993-99). Associate professor at the Royal Danish Officer Academy (2011- ), Senior Advisor NordGEN at the Nordic Council of Ministers 2005-2009 on Russia and the CIS. Lectures to the general public on military and security affairs as well as used as analyst on Russian matters in Danish news media. With DIS since 2015. Approach to Teaching: This course will be a combination of lectures and a discussion-based seminars.
Expectations of the students: Since the course is partly discussion-based, it demands a high degree of student participation and engagement. Throughout the course, you will also have to develop and practice your own critical thinking by analyzing texts, concepts as well as specific cases to understand the complexity of the field of terrorism. Furthermore, you will give a presentation on a relevant topic as well as write a short paper.
Draft Syllabus
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from a European Perspective | DIS| Disciplines: International Relations, Political Science.
Field Studies/guest lectures/WS:
• FS 1 Wednesday, (Date TBA) Field study visit to the Exhibition “The Distant War” (On Denmark’s engagement in Afghanistan)
• Visit : Insurgency and counterinsurgency (COIN) operations – What can we learn from experience ? Field studyto the Royal Danish Officer Academy
• GL 1 (Date TBA) Guest Lecture/Field Study by Manni Crone: Radicalization Revisited at DIIS (Østbanegade 117)
• GL 2 (Date TBA): Intelligence – practical dilemmas involved in looking into the future • Work shop Terrorism – a gaming approach
Study Tour to Århus, Belfast and Brussels to look respectively at radicalization and counter-initiatives , IRA, Muslim extremism and so-called religious terrorism.
Grading and Evaluation: Participation and engagement 35% Study tour engagement and participation 15% Study Tour assignments, paper and presentation 5% + 20% Paper 25%
Class Representatives: Class representatives will be elected at the beginning of the semester. Please communicate your feedback on the course to the two representatives. See DIS Canvas if you are unsure who they are.
Policies: Attendance: You are expected to attend all DIS classes when scheduled. If you miss multiple classes the Director of Teaching and Learning and the Director of Student Affairs will be notified, and they will follow-up with you to make sure that all is well. Absences will jeopardize your grade and your standing at DIS. Allowances will be made in cases of illness, but in the case of multiple absences, you will need to provide a doctor’s note.
Laptops in class: You may use your laptop for note-taking or fact-checking in my class. Usage not related to the class or our subject is unacceptable. Students should also refrain from any activity/behavior that may be disturbing to other students who are making the effort to be attentive. I am relying on your integrity and your respect for our objectives. If you are using your laptop for reasons not related to class, I will reduce your class participation grade significantly.
Academic Honesty: DIS expects that students abide by the highest standards of intellectual honesty in all academic work. DIS assumes that all students do their own work and credit all work or thought taken from others. Academic dishonesty will result in a final course grade of “F” and can result in dismissal. The students’ home universities will be notified. DIS reserves the right to request that written student assignments be turned in in electronic form for submission to plagiarism detection software. See the Academic Handbook for more information, or ask your instructor if you have questions. Disability and Resource Statement: Any student who has a need for accommodation due to a disability should coordinate with Sean Green ([email protected]). In order to receive accommodations, students should inform the instructor of approved DIS accommodations within the first two weeks of classes.
Draft Syllabus
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from a European Perspective | DIS| Disciplines: International Relations, Political Science.
Schedule of classes, readings to be done for each class, and assignment due dates.
CLASS SCHEDULE: (1) Thursday, 19 January: Introduction to class Readings: Dean Obeidallah, “Are all Terrorists Muslims? It’s not even close”,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-terrorists-muslims-it-s-not-even-close.html
Group exercise : Two rooms and a boom (2) Monday, 23 January: History of terrorism Q: What characterizes specific terror groups? Does terror differ from conventional military conflicts? Readings: TBA – group specific texts (TBA)
Howard, Michael, “The use and abuse of Military History” in Military Review, 1962
(3) Thursday, 26 January: History of terrorism continued Q: How do we categorize the history of terrorism? Readings: Isabelle Duyvesteyn, “The Role of History and Continuity in Terrorism Research”, in Magnus
Ranstorp, ed., Mapping Terrorism Research (London: Routledge 2007)
(4) Monday, 30 January: Defining “terrorism” Q: Can we arrive at an objective definition? Readings: Richard Jackson, Lee Jarvis, Jeroen Gunning, Marie Breen-Smyth, ”Conceptualizing Terrorism”, in
Terrorism: A Critical Introduction (Palgrave 2011), pp. 99-123 **Election of class representatives FIELD STUDY: Date TBA Field study visit to the Exhibition “The Distant War” (On Denmark’s engagement in Afghanistan)
Readings: “The distant war” – selected articles. (TBA)
(5) Thursday, 2 February: Ideological terrorism and European extreme wing Terrorism Q: How to make sense of ideological terrorism 7/7 bombings and Religious Terrorism Q: How to make sense of religious rhetoric? Readings: Bruce Hoffman, “Radicalization and Subversion: Al Qaeda and the 7 July 2005 Bombings and the
2006 Airline Bombing Plot”, in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, #32 2009, pp. 1100-1116
Draft Syllabus
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from a European Perspective | DIS| Disciplines: International Relations, Political Science.
Optional: Gus Martin, “Violence in the Name of Faith: Religious Terrorism”, in Understanding Terrorism: Challenges Perspectives, and Issues (Sage 4th ed., 2013), pp. 158-191
Jon Elster, “Motivations and Beliefs in Suicide Missions”, in Diego Ambetta, ed., Making Sense of Suicide Missions (Oxford: OUP 2005), pp. 233-258
Readings: IRA specific texts – (TBA) J Smith and André Moncourt: The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, vol. 2, chapter 1 “Previously on
Red Army Faction” (Montreal, Kersplebedeb 2013), pp. 1-48, Peter H. Merkl, ”West German Left-Wing Terrorism”, in Martha Crenshaw, ed., Terrorism in Context (Pennsylvania, PUP 1995/2007), pp. 160-210
Optional: Gus Martin, “Violent Ideologies: Terrorism from the Left and the Right”, in Understanding
Terrorism: Challenges Perspectives, and Issues (Sage 4th ed., 2013), pp. 192-243
Core Class week (Week 6) Short Study Tour to Århus
• Week 6 Study Tour to Århus • Insurgency and counterinsurgency (COIN) operations – What can we learn from experience? Field
studyto the Royal Danish Officer Academy • GL 1 (Date TBA) Guest Lecture/Field Study by Manni Crone: Radicalization Revisited at DIIS
(Østbanegade 117) • Work shop on Terrorism – a gaming approach
(6) Monday, 13 February: Workshop/debrief on Study Tour and Core Class week
(7) Thursday, 16 February: Terrorism, Media, social media and the internet Q: What is the relation between terrorism and the traditional Media? Is communication a terrorist weapon? Readings: Brigitte L. Nacos, “Terrorist Propaganda and the Media”, in Terrorism and Counterterrorism:
Understanding Threats and Responses in the Post-9/11 World (Pearson, 2nd ed. 2007), pp. 221-240
Brigitte L. Nacos, “Anti- and Counterterrorism in the News”, in Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Understanding Threats and Responses in the Post-9/11 World (Pearson, 2nd ed. 2007), pp. 257-271 Lipman Report: “The Rising Tide of Cyberwarfare: Cyberterrorism and Cybercrime in a Climate of Heightened Global Risk and Economic Instability”, September 2009
(8) Monday, 20 February: Approaches to Terrorism: Rationalist explanations Q: A tool of the weak?
Draft Syllabus
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from a European Perspective | DIS| Disciplines: International Relations, Political Science.
Readings: Christopher Coker, “Asymmetrical Warfare: Ends or Means?”, in John Olsen, ed., Asymmetric Warfare (Oslo: Norwegian Air Force Academy 2002), pp. 319-340.
(9) Thursday, 23 February: Approaches to terrorism: Sociological explanations Q: Can an identity dictate this type of behaviour? Readings: Ted Gurr, Why Men Rebel, (Princeton, NJ: PUP 1970), pp. 155-192
Long Study Tour – Belfast/Brussels February 25–March 3 (TBA)
(10) Monday, 6 March: The conflict in Northern Ireland Q: How do we define a conflict with multilateral aspects? (11) Thursday, 9 March: The conflict in Northern Ireland (cont.) Q: Who is the enemy? Who is the friend? A roleplaying approach Readings : Gus Martin, “Violent Ideologies: Terrorism from the Left and the Right”, in Understanding Terrorism: Challenges Perspectives, and Issues (Sage 4th ed., 2013), pp. 192-243 IRA specific (TBA) Recommended: “After the killing”, Essays on liquidations during the German Occupation of Denmark 1940-1945 (12) Monday, 13 March: Workshop/debrief on Study Tour (13) Thursday, 16 March: Superterrorism & dealing with terrorism Q: Is there anything new about the most recent wave of terrorism? And how do we deal with it? Readings: Adam Dolnik, “13 Years since Tokyo: Re-visiting the “superterrorism” Debate”, Perspectives on
Terrorism, Vol. II, 2008 http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/articles/issues/PTv2i2.pdf
Long Study Tour 2 / Travel Break 18 March – 26 March
Draft Syllabus
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism from a European Perspective | DIS| Disciplines: International Relations, Political Science.
(14) Monday, 27 March: Issues abroad in Counter-Terrorism: Targeted Killings, Drones, Q: How do we make sense of counterterrorism strategies? Readings: Audrey Kurth Cronin, “Why Drones Fail: When Tactics Drive Strategy”, Foreign Affairs July/August
(2013) Daniel Byman, “Why Drones Work: The Case for Washington’s Weapon of Choice”, Foreign Affairs
July/August (2013) (15) Thursday, 30 March: Content TBA
(16) Monday, 3 April: Torture Q: Does it work? And if it works, is it then okay to torture? How to treat the enemy? Readings: Jeffrey Addicott, “YES, The truth about American state interrogation techniques, torture and the
ticking time-bomb terrorist”, in Richard Jackson and Samuel Justin Sinclair, ed., Contemporary Debates on Terrorism (Routledge 2012), pp. 152-158
Robert Becher, “NO, Why torture is wrong”, in Richard Jackson and Samuel Justin Sinclair, ed., Contemporary Debates on Terrorism (Routledge 2012), pp. 159-164
(17) Thursday, 6 April: Domestic Issues in Counter-Terrorism: Security vs Freedom, Society of Surveillance Readings: David Cole: ”Confronting the Wizard of Oz: National Security, Expertise, and Secrecy”, in
Connecticut Law Review, Vol. 44, July 2012 #5, pp. 1618-1625, http://connecticutlawreview.org/files/2012/09/7.Cole-FINAL.pdf
Optional: Philip Heymann, Terrorism, Freedom and Security – Winning Without War (MIT Press 2003), pp.
158-179 Ami Pedahzur and Magnus Ranstorp: “A tertiary model for countering terrorism in liberal
democracies: The case of Israel”, in John Horgan and Kurt Braddock, ed., Terrorism Studies: A Reader (Routledge 2012), pp. 313-330
David Lyon: “Introduction”, in Surveillance after September 11 (Polity 2003), pp. 1-12 (18) Monday, April 10: Presentations and Wrap-up Term-paper due on date TBA. Hand in a printed paper and submit a copy by e-mail. **Schedule is subject to change if necessary with as much notice as possible**
