Terrorism: A Study in Scarlet

In the field of Political Science, there are no fewer than six subfields: American Political System, Legalism, Normative Theory, Methodology, International Relations, and Comparative Politics. The two introductory courses you may have taken, PLS101 and PLS121, gave broad brush strokes over all of these topics. PLS105 (Introduction to World Politics) delved into the topic of international relations more deeply. It offered what amounted to broad brush strokes of the entire IR subfield. This current course examines one specific aspect of world politics-that dealing with the causes and effects of terrorist activity.

There are no required texts for this course. All readings will come from journals and chapters from reserved books you can find in the Alumni Library.

In addition to attending every class period, students are expected to deport themselves as professionals. This means that all readings, extensive though they may be, are read and digested; questions about the materials are formulated; and extensions to the topics to be covered are considered. Make no mistake about it: This is a graduate-level course. There are two scheduled extended quizzes, one scheduled examination (the final), four major assignments, and a variety of in-class exercises designed to force you to grapple with some of the complexities of terrorism research.

If you joined this class thinking it would be a place to sit around and condemn terrorist actions, you are in the wrong place. We are here to understand why they do it and how to keep them from doing it. I am assuming that we do want to keep it from happening. There is a very compelling moral argument that concludes terrorist activities are not immoral and do serve the common good. If you would like to have that discussion, I'll be happy to have it with you outside of class.