This module is only suitable for advanced undergraduate students and requires sound methodological knowledge, including familiarity with quantitative research. You should also have taken POLS001 International Conflict and Cooperation and POLS0019 International Security (or equivalent) before taking this module.


The module is about the causes, dynamics, and consequences of terrorism and how we can empirically study them. As such, it places as much emphasis on the field’s main theoretical debates and empirical findings as on the concrete process of the empirical scientific study of terrorism. The module will not cover so-called “critical” approaches to terrorism nor the normative/ethical questions concerning (counter-)terrorism.
We will study the topic from both a contemporary and a historical perspective and examine terrorism as a strategic tool of intra-state and transnational warfare. We will draw on insights from political science, sociology, psychology, criminology, economics, and history to shed light on the historical trends in terrorist activity, the role of “extremism” in terrorist violence, the relationship of terrorism to other forms of political violence, the use of one-sided violence in civil conflicts, the system and individual-level roots of terrorism, the role of religion in contemporary transnational terrorism, as well as the effects and effectiveness of this strategy of political violence. We will also examine the policy responses available to political decision makers in the field of security.Learning goals
By the end of the module, you should have achieved the following learning goals:
• Be familiar with the key theoretical arguments on each of the module’s topics.
• Be able to critically engage with existing theoretical arguments.
• Be able to develop your own theoretical argument, including empirically testable hypotheses.
• Know how to empirically examine theoretically relevant questions on terrorism.
• Be able to develop a research design that serves to test the empirical expectations of a theoretical argument.
• Be familiar with the methodological challenges to empirical studies of terrorism.Expectations
This is an advanced political science module. Its delivery is based on the expectations that you…
• have good prior knowledge of theories in the field of conflict research;
• are familiar with empirical (including quantitative) research (= you should have a good understanding of the epistemological function of empirical research and know how to evaluate qualitative and quantitative methods and to interpret quantitative evidence);
• show strong interest in deepening your knowledge of empirical political science and applying it to the study of terrorism;
• participate actively in the seminar exercises (computers are required!);
• and invest about two hours per week in preparation for the seminars, in addition to reading the required texts specified in the syllabus.
• Experience with statistics programmes, such as R or Stata, is advantageous, but not required.

 

Delivery
You are expected to complete the required readings for each week, as specified in the syllabus below. (Note that since this is an advanced module, you are expected to find and access these readings yourself online!) The additional literature listed for each session is not required material, but provides a collection of relevant works you can consult to deepen your understanding of topics that are of particular interest to you. The lectures will focus on the “bigger picture” of each week’s topic, summarizing the relevant theoretical debates and key empirical findings. They will thus reflect, but go beyond, the required readings. The seminars serve to deepen your understanding, practice critical reasoning, and illustrate how to empirically study terrorism. To this end, over the course of the term, you will work together in small peer groups to develop a research design tackling a research question of your own choice related to terrorist violence. (Note, though, that carrying out the actual research is not part of the module.) The small-group work on the research design project will be organized in the form of methodological “mini workshops” that serve to familiarize you with each step in the designing of empirical scientific enquiries, leading to a full-fledged research design. You will present your research designs to your seminar peers in the form of a short video presentation at the end of the module. Computers are required for the seminars, and some of the “mini workshops” will involve applying the acquired theoretical knowledge to concrete data on terrorist activity.  

Accompanying textbook
In addition to the weekly required readings, you should read the following core methodological guide in your small peer group:

King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

You will read parts of the book in preparation for selected seminars and discuss the text with your peers in a self-organized manner. The relevant chapters/pages are listed under the “Seminar” heading for the respective weeks in the syllabus below.