Terrorism and Counterterrorism - Theory, Evidence, and Outlooks

Overview

What do we know about the roots and motivations of ISIS, the KKK, al-Qaeda, or the Lord’s Resistance Army beyond speculation, snippets of incomplete information, and stereotypical assessments? This course considers modern-day terrorism from a theoretical and especially from an empirical perspective. First, we study whether, when, and why terrorism has been successful to varying degrees. Second, we turn to the intimate relationship between terrorism and the media; exploring whether and how news coverage is likely so crucial for terror groups; and what this means for a free press. Third, we consider the role of religion in terror movements and radicalization (e.g., for Islamist extremism). Fourth and final, we evaluate counterterrorism strategies, exploring a few successful and unsuccessful cases for which empirical evidence is available.

At the end of this course, you will have acquired a better understanding of the drivers and consequences of terrorism; what makes these groups ticks; and what we as a society can do to stop them. In addition, you will have worked through several scientific papers that employ a variety of statistical strategies to analyse real-world data, particularly focusing on isolating causal effects.

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand how terrorism is similar and different from more traditional forms of large-scale organized violence, such as intra- and interstate wars.
• Distinguish between correlation and causality when it comes to the drives and consequences of terrorism.
• Formulate their own research ideas related to the topic.
• Read and assess empirical studies about terrorism and terrorism-related topics.