Charles Taylor

A UN-supported court found Charles Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting several types of war crimes, including “Acts of Terrorism.” Note that the court did not decide he was guilty of the actual war crimes, only that he aided and abetted them.

While this is a momentous occassion for those who lost because of Taylor, it also marks the first conviction of an African Head of State by an international tribunal.

It is a good first step, no?
Controlling the Media

One question in terrorism research concerns the ability of the terrorist group to control the media. Until the September 11, 2001, attacks, the rule of thumb for terrorist groups was to have lots of noise with little blood. This would maximize the benefit gained through television exposure, while minimizing the outrage over their actions.

To keep control of the terrorists, many States decided to control the airwaves. This reduced the non-negative exposure and increased the negative exposure given to terrorist groups. Unfortunately, this does appear to be a violation of a central democratic principle.

How does keeping people from criticizing the King help stability in Thailand?
You Might be a Terrorist

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is charged with investigating the federal crimes. It is also supposed to stop the crimes before they happen. In a world that is not like Minority Report, how can they?

Here, we find that the FBI is asking business owners to join them in their fight against terrorism. But, what do terrorists look like? And, as a business owner, what should you look for?

And why does this sound like a Jeff Foxworthy skit gone mad?
The Terror of Sweden

Among other things, the 1970s brought an uncontrollable terror from Sweden—the Swedish Chef. Controlling the airwaves was not difficult for him; he had his own television show, streaming his vile terror against helpless pumpkins to millions of impressionable children (and their parents).

Thankfully, the combined force of worsening celebrities and increasing television costs sent this Swedish terrorist to the graveyard known as syndication.

But, beware! As a part of Disney, he may rise from the grave and cårven der pümpkîns once again.

GVPT406: Global Terrorism

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 gave broad brush strokes over all of these topics. This current course examines one specific aspect of world politics—that dealing with the causes and effects of terrorist activity.

The underlying purpose for this year’s course is to train you to be better terrorism researchers. This necessitates that you learn how to become better researchers. Some of you have taken the research methods sequence in the department. Some of you have not. If you have, think of this course as being a refresher and an extender. If you have not, think of this course as being an introduction to doing Political Science research.

Primary Texts

The required books for this course:

Bruce Hoffman. (2006) Inside Terrorism. Columbia University Press.
(ISBN: 978-0-231-12699-1)
Marc Sageman. (2004) Understanding Terror Networks. Pennsylvania University Press.
(ISBN: 978-0-812-23808-2)

The required books are available from the bookstore and from neighboring bookstores. They will both be used extensively in the class, so it would behoove you to get them. Additional readings will be assigned as necessary and will be available by link on WebTycho under “Course Content”.