This module provides students with an overview of terrorism, including empirical trends, historical manifestations, current groups and tactics, and prominent explanations for why terrorism occurs and individuals get involved in terrorist activity.

While the course material draws from an array of disciplines traditionally concerned with the topic, such as political science, international relations, sociology and psychology, the main purpose of the module is to introduce students to a more distinctive security and crime science perspective on the subject. Therefore, throughout the module, students are encouraged to:

think about what it means to study terrorism as a scientific problem, specifically;
adopt a critical yet open mindset (e.g. don't take what you read or hear at face-value, but be willing to learn from different points of views and disciplines);
reflect on the conceptual and methodological issues involved in gathering reliable knowledge about terrorism and counter-terrorism;
think about what this particular approach to the study of terrorism implies for the design (and evaluation) of preventive and disruptive social and scientific technologies to combat terrorism.
As an indication, some of the lectures delivered in this module address the following questions:

What does it mean to study terrorism as a scientific problem?
 How do we get around the problem of lack of consensual definitions?
 Why does knowing past forms of terrorism matter?
 Where to find terrorism data for research?
 How have researchers tried to explain why groups and individuals engage in terrorism and what are the implications of these accounts for counter-terrorism?
 What is radicalisation and how can we explain it?
 What are the main terrorist groups active today and what tactics do they use?
 What is the role of the media and the internet in terrorism?
 Why do individuals leave terrorist groups and disengage from terrorism?
Specific lectures focus on Islamic-inspired and right-wing-inspired terrorism, as well as on terrorism conducted by lone actors, though these topics may vary year-on-year to adapt to the evolving nature of the problem.