Course Introduction
Topics include the definitions of terrorism; the historical antecedents of modern terrorism; the causes, ideologies, and motivations of terrorist groups; the different facets and strategies of terrorist organizations; and terrorism’s effects on policy.
Work done in this course will be further developed in GVPT 408: Counterterrorism. It may also be used in the program’s capstone course with program-level approval.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk a bit more about the Topic Selection, which sometime causes some confusion among students, mostly due to the way the paper topic is phrased within the Syllabus. Indeed, while will be talking about terrorist strategies and methods throughout the course, we will not specifically do so.
The Government Department mandates the paper topic for this course, and it has very specific requirements. You have to “In this paper you will select a terrorist strategy used between the 1950s and present day and that has been or is a threat to the United States and its national interests. In your paper you will answer the following questions: Why is this method a terrorist strategy? Which terrorists use this method? Why? When is this strategy effective? Why? What are the flaws of this strategy? Why? and What infrastructures support the use of this method? How and Why?” (GVTP 406, Syllabus > Final Paper) These requirements limit your choice greatly, because you have to focus onto a strategy that is/has been a threat to American national security. Additionally, the syllabus uses interchangeably the terms “strategy” and “method,” which its a bit ambiguous.
For the purpose of this paper, you will choose a terrorist method that has been a threat to American national security anytime since the 1950s. Examples of terrorist methods are: Suicide bombings (like the Khobar Towers, or the U.S.S. Cole, or 9/11), IEDs (Oklahoma City, Iraq, but also Boston Marathon), selected killings (The Weather Underground), kidnappings (General Dozier) and many more, but not terrorist strategies like attrition, intimidation, or provocation.
I purposely chose very different instances that took place both in the U.S. and abroad, because the paper asks that you chose a method which has threatened American national security, not necessarily the homeland. The rest of the questions are pretty straightforward: Once the time comes, take a look at the syllabus and let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to explain more clearly.
Lastly: This is an article that talks about terrorist strategy. It’s an oldie, but goodie 🙂 and it might help in framing your choice: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1975-07-01/strategy-terrorism If you feel the need for more sources to get you started, please let me know: I have a couple of others up my sleeve 🙂 I hope this helps: If you have any question, please feel free to post here or to email me.
Final Paper
Please submit a finished paper. The final paper must include a brief history of the strategy as well as answer the following questions: Why is this a terrorist strategy? Which terrorists use this strategic method? Why? When is this strategic method effective? Why? What are the flaws of this strategy? Why? and What infrastructures support the use of this method as part of a terrorist strategy? How and Why?
The paper must be 2000-2500 words, excluding the title page, abstract and bibliography, which must also be included with the final paper as a single document. You must include a word count at beginning of the paper.
Papers will be in APA format and must use at least 3 primary and 8 secondary sources to demonstrate the plausibility of a clearly stated, analytical thesis if hoping to earn an A.
Proper grammar and spelling are required.
Papers must be written in Microsoft Word or RTF, double spaced, with no more than 1.25 margins using standard 12 point font.
Restrict your sources to newspaper articles from major national and international papers, published journals and magazine articles, academic sources, and websites from major organizations and government agencies. Course materials may be used as a reference, but it does not count toward the minimum number of sources. Encyclopedias and dictionaries are not appropriate sources for college level work. Online sources are fine, but they must be authoritative sources. Wikipedia, About.com, and other nonacademic websites are not acceptable sources. (Bear in mind that anyone can submit an article to Wikipedia.) If you are unsure about how to determine whether an online source is a good one, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University has an excellent resource guide: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_evalsource4.html. If you still have doubts as to whether a source is acceptable, send your instructor an e-mail.
Papers are due at the end of Week 8 as a single attachment via the Assignments Folder.
