88069 - TERRORISM AND COUNTER-TERRORISM

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The objective of the course is to study terrorism, its aims and forms, with a particular focus on counter-terrorism and the measures implemented by the international community and individual states. Students will examine classic and current research on terrorism and counterterrorism, and explore many of the research puzzles that remain unanswered. Specifically, guided by the existing debate among scholars of terrorism, from traditional to critical positions, students will approach: the spectrum of terrorist motivations, strategies, and operations; the socio-political, economic and other factors that can create enabling environments for terrorist group activities; and finally, the means by which governments (especially liberal democratic states) reacted to contemporary forms of terrorist violence in different regions of the world. This comparative analysis will help students develop a complex understanding of historical trends, meanings, contemporary dilemmas and challenges related to this form of political violence.

Contenuti

The course aims to study contemporary forms of terrorism, its definitions and origins as well as its objectives, functions and forms, with a particular focus on counterterrorism measures implemented both by individual states and the international community. Students will approach classic and current scholarship on terrorism and counterterrorism, and explore many of the research puzzles that remain unanswered. Underpinned by the existing debates among scholars of terrorism, ranging from mainstream to critical perspectives, students will examine the spectrum of terrorist motivations, strategies, and operations; the socio-political, economic and other factors and causes that can create enabling environments for terrorist group activities; and finally, the means by which governments (especially liberal democratic states) react to contemporary forms of terrorist violence in different regions of the world. Classes will be enriched by guest lectures that will present case studies and focus on specific geopolitical spaces that are of critical relevance for current and future trends and scenarios on terrorism and counterterrorism.

 

Lectures will follow the interactive in class seminars format. Seminars will be held in presence in Bologna.

Students are required to read the materials in advance. You can find the readings and the other materials on the virtuale page of the course. Active participation is strongly encouraged.

Seminars will be different from traditional classes. They will be based on active participation and debates among students. Students will be invited to discuss different ideas and arguments, taking a position. The class will be further divided in subgroups that will be invited to support different sides of an argument on specific issues and topics.

As a consequence, preparing the readings in advance will be essential for the active attendance of the seminars.

For each student, the total amount of hours is 40 hours.

The evaluation will consist in class participation and presentations (30%), mid-term (30%) and final exam (40%).

Topics:

1. Introduction, Class overview and the definition of Terrorism
   
2. International Relations and Terrorism: theoretical approaches and gaps
   
3. Politics and Terror: an historical background
4. History of Terrorism: case studies and class discussion
   
5. The Causes of Terrorism and Actors
   
6. Causes, Drivers and Patterns of Terrorism and Extremism: case studies and class discussion
   
7. Dynamics and Issues of Radicalization
   
8. International and Domestic Issues: freedom/liberty vs. security
   
9. Terrorism, Civil Wars and Insurgency
10. Issues Abroad in Counter-Terrorism: Targeted Killings, Drones, and Torture
    
11. Mid-Term
    
12. Supranational Approaches: EU and the shift from counterterrorism to counter-radicalization
    
13. Supranational Approaches: UN, counterterrorism and PVE
    
14. Geographical Focus: Transnational Terrorism and Counterterrorism in the Sahara Sahel region. Guest Lecture
    
15. Foreign fighters, lone wolves, and transnational alliances
    
16. Media and Terrorism. Guest Lecture
    
17. Societal effects of counter-radicalization
    
18. Documentary "The Worst Thing (aka To Germany with Love)" & Discussion
    
19. Recap and Discussion: Take-Aways
    
20. Final Exam

Testi/Bibliografia

  Useful Textbooks

• Pisou and Jackson (2018) Contemporary Debates on Terrorism, Routledge
• Erica Chenoweth, Richard English, Andreas Gofas, and Stathis N. Kalyvas (2019) The Oxford
• Handbook of Terrorism
• Silke (2019) Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism.
• Daniela Pisoiu (2018) Theories of Terrorism: An Introduction, Routledge.

  Bibliography for students not attending classes:

• all the readings mentioned in the Programma/Schedule (see below) and additionally the following book Pisou and Jackson (2018) Contemporary Debates on Terrorism, Routledge
• Please contact the Professor to discuss the assessment modalities

1 Introduction, Class overview and the definition of Terrorism 

• Richards, A. and Bryan, D. (2018) Is terrorism still a useful analytical term, or should it be abandoned? Yes and NO, Chapter 1, in Pisou and Jackson (2018), Contemporary Debates on Terrorism.
• Stathis Kalyvas (2018) The Landscape of Political Violence, Chapter 2, in Gofas et al. (2018), The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism
• Matt Scaton (2021) "The Etymology of Terror", The New York Review of Books, 12 November 2021
  

  2 International Relations and Terrorism: theoretical approaches and gaps
  

• D’Amato, Silvia (2019) Introduction Chapter 1, in Cultures of Counterterrorism, Routledge
• Colin Wight (2009) Theorising Terrorism: The State, Structure and History. International Relations, 23(1), 99–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117808100615

  3 Politics and Terror: an historical background
  

• Lavenia V (2019) "Holy Scripture, Theology and Violence. Terror and Samson in the Early Modern Era. In W. de Boer, V. Lavenia and G. Marocci (eds). La ghianda e la quercia. Saggi per Adriano Prosperi, Roma
  
• Martin A. Miller (2018) European Political Violence During the Long 19th Century, in Gofas et al. (2018), The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism
• Rapoport D. C (2004) "The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism" In A. K. Cronin and J. M. Ludes (eds.) Attacking terrorism. Elements of a Grand Strategy. Washington, DC, Georgetown University Press: 46-73
  
• Michael Livesey (2021) Historicising "terrorism": how and why?, Critical Studies on Terrorism 14(4)
  

  4 History of Terrorism: case studies and class discussion
  

• Falciola, L.(2015). "A Bloodless Guerilla Warfare: Why the US White Leftist renounced Violence Against People During the 1970s" Terrorism and Political Violence,  DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2014.982862

• Sànchez-Cuenza, I. (2007). "The Dynamics of Nationalist Terrorism: ETA and the IRA," Terrorism and Political Violence, 19: 289-306. DOI: 10.1080/09546550701246981
  

  5 The Causes of Terrorism and Actors
  

• Jeff Goodwin (2018) The Causes of Terrorism, Chapter 17, in Gofas et al. (2018), The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism

• Jeroen Gunning & Richard Jackson (2011) What's so ‘religious’ about ‘religious terrorism’?, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 4:3, 369-388, DOI:10.1080/17539153.2011.623405

  6 Causes, Drivers and Patterns of Extremism and  Terrorism: case studies and class discussion
  

• Heath-Kelly, C. (2019). “Drivers of Extremism: Global Political Antagonisms reproduced in Cypriot and Italian Insurgencies”

• Bures, O. (2016). "Terrorism and Counterterrorism", In Routledge Handbook of Security Studies: Second Edition: 139-149. DOI: 10.4324/9781315753393

• Della Porta, D. and Haupt, HG. (2012). "Patterns of Radicalization in Political Activism. An Introduction, Social Science History, 36(3): 311-320
  

  7 Dynamics and Issues of Radicalization
  

• Heath-Kelly, C. (2013), Counter-Terrorism and the Counterfactual: Producing the ‘Radicalisation’ Discourse and the UK PREVENT Strategy. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 15: 394-415. doi:10.1111/j.1467-856X.2011.00489.x

• Rajan Basra, Peter R. Neumann (2016) Criminal Pasts, Terrorist Futures: European Jihadists and the New Crime-Terror Nexus, Perspectives on Terrorism, http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/554/1098

• Alonso, R. et al. (2008). "Radicalisation Processes Leading to Acts of Terrorism". A concise report prepared by the European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation.
  

  8 International and Domestic Issues: freedom/liberty vs. security
  

• Jesse, P. Lehrke and Greenberg, I. (2018). "Is mass surveillance a useful tool in the fight against terrorism? Yes & No", Chapter 15, In Pisou, D. and Jackson, R. (2018). Contemporary Debates on Terrorism.
  

• Neal, A. (2009). "The liberty/security discourse and the problem of the exception", In Exceptionalism and the Politics of Counter-Terrorism, Liberty, Security and the War on Terror
  

  9 Terrorism, Civil Wars and Insurgency
  

• Kalyvas, S. (2004). The Paradox of Terrorism in Civil War. The Journal of Ethics,

  8(1), 97-138. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25115783

• Zambernardi Lorenzo (2010) “Counterinsurgency Impossible Trilemma”, Washington Quarterly, pp. 21-34.

  10 Issues abroad in Counter-Terrorism: Targeted Killings, Drones, and Torture
  

• Film excerpt: Unmanned: America's Drone Wars (2013). Robert Greenwald (15 minutes to be screened and discussed in class).
  

• Rory Finegan and Christine Sixta Rinehart (2018). "Are drones a useful counterterrorism tool? Yes & No" chapter 15, In Pisou, D. and Jackson, R. (2018). Contemporary Debates on Terrorism

• Finegan, R. (2018). Targeted Killings: perpetual war for perpetual peace? Chapter 41, In Silke, A., Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism
  

  11 Mid-Term

       12 Supranational Approaches: EU and the shift from counterterrorism to counter-radicalization

• Argomaniz, J., Bures, O. and Kaunert, C. (2015). A Decade of EU Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence: A Critical Assessment, Intelligence and National Security, 30:(2-3): 191-206, DOI: 10.1080/02684527.2014.988445

• Monar, J. (2015). "The EU as an International Counter-terrorism Actor: Progress and Constraints, Intelligence and National Security, 30(2-3): 333-356. DOI: 10.1080/02684527.2014.988448

• Russo, A. and Selenica, E. (2022). "Actors and sites for knowledge production on radicalisation in Europe and beyond," In S. D'Amato and A. Sachoulidou, Special Issue "European Transnationalism between successes and shortcomings: Threats, Strategies, Actors under the  microscope", Journal of Contemporary European Studies
  

13 Supranational Approaches: UN, counterterrorism and PVE

• Bianchi, A. (2019). Counterterrorism and International Law. In the Oxford Handbook of Terrorism. Oxford University Press

• Karlsrud, J. (2017). "Towards UN counter-terrorism operations?", Third World Quarterly, 38(6): 1215-1231, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2016.1268907
  

        14 Geographical Focus: Transnational Terrorism and Counterterrorism in the Sahara-Sahel region. Guest Lecture

Readings tbc

       15 Foreign fighters, lone wolves, & transnational alliances

• Malet, D. (2019). Foreign fighters and Terrorism", In Silke, A. Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism

• German, M. (2020). "Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement." Brennan Center for Justice, 27 August 2020
  

      16 Media and Terrorism. Guest Lecture

• Readings tbc
  

         17 Societal effects of counter-radicalization

• Ragazzi, F. (2016). "Suspect community or suspect category? The impact of counter-terrorism as 'policed multiculturalism'," Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(5): 724-741. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2015.1121807

• Koehler, D. and Heath-Kelly, C. (2018). "Are counter-radicalisation approaches an effective counterterrorist tool? YEs & NO", Chapter 14, In Pisou, D. and Jackson, R. Contemporary Debates on Terorrism

• Al Jazeera. (2023). "Austria drops bogus 'terrorism' charges against Muslim academic," 11 January 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/11/austria-drops-bogus-terrorism-charges-against-muslim-academic
  

        18 Documentary and Discussion

        19 Recap and Discussion: Take Away

        20 Final Exam

Metodi didattici

Lectures, seminars, class discussion, presentations and guest lectures

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Class Participation and Presentations: 30%

Mid-term: 30%

Final exam: 40%

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Power point, videos, documentaries

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Ervjola Selenica