Short courses

Summary

After 9/11, the ‘war on terror’ could give the impression that terrorism was a singular phenomenon, a collective enemy against the world order. Yet the phenomenon of organised political violence is a tactic as old as warfare itself and possesses a myriad of situational and inter-connected motivations from economic injustice, religious fervour and ethnic persecution to colonial oppression and extreme nationalism. Is it possible to find some common reasons as to why people become terrorists, why these conflicts endure and how to resolve them? What can be learned from the different ways that ‘terrorism’ has been defined and targeted in the modern era? What can terrorism tell us about the political history of state and international security? 

Join this timely and reflective course to take a closer look at the history of modern terrorism: its methods, motives, aims and state responses stretching from its origins in the wake of the French Revolution (where the term ‘terrorism’ itself emerges), through to the anarchists of the 1880s to the left- and right-wing clashes of the 20th and 21st century including the multinational operations of ‘Islamic’ terrorist groups today.  

Over a series of talks our expert tutor will explain: 

• The origins and character of anti-state terrorism in the wake of the French Revolution. 
• The key political, religious, social, economic and cultural contexts in which terrorism emerges. 
• The evolution of the ideology of terrorism through the thought of its key thinkers (Bakunin, Fanon, Che Guevara, Qutb etc) as well as state security responses to terrorism  
• Key contemporary sources and later historical perspectives  

Students will also have the opportunity to debate and discuss these ideas with other students and the tutor in class 

Choose this course if you want to: 

• Understand the growth and impact of terrorism as a political strategy in the modern world 
• Reflect on the impact of notorious terrorist attacks and the groups behind them in a broader context 
• Try to understand the ‘terrorist mindset’: why individuals and groups advocate terrorism and whether it ever works in achieving its goals 
• Look more closely the difficult political instability of the term ‘terrorism’ that some states have manipulated for their own ends 
• Take a longer view to debunk media myths about terrorism which permeate popular culture