GV4A8      Half Unit
Political Violence and Terrorism

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

How can we distinguish legitimate resistance and political violence from terrorism? What is the relationship between war and terror? What distinguishes a combatant from non-combatant? Should we erode civil liberties and democratic values to fight terrorism? How do social scientists theorise about political violence and terrorism? This course attempts to answer these and similar questions by a comparative examination of the theories and ethics of political violence and the root causes, nature and types, and dynamics of violence. This course also evaluates different political and security policies and methods of conflict resolution as change agents. A number of case studies of historical and contemporary conflicts are examined to illustrate the theoretical and policy dilemmas. The course has two parts. Firstly, it examines definitions and concepts, the principles and efficacy of the laws and norms of armed conflict and ethical dilemmas in their application. We explore the causes and motivations for engaging and not engaging in political violence. We examine the historical evolution of policies of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism from the colonial era to the present day by analysing cases (France/Algeria, UK/Empire, US/Vietnam, Israel/Palestine, Russia/Chechnya). The effects of dealing with resistance, from coercive to cooperative approaches, is analysed, and the impact on the balance between security and liberty in democracies is mapped. Secondly, the course explores the key issues and debates through a number of detailed case studies that analyse political violence and terrorism in democracies and non-democracies, including the insurgency and counterinsurgencies in Northern Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the transnational challenges posed by Islamist violence and forms of White Supremacist violence. The relationship between war, ethnic cleansing and genocide is examined by comparing the cases of the Former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and Israel/Palestine/Gaza. Throughout the course critical perspectives are encouraged, with lessons drawn from the performance of different regime types (colonial, democratic, and authoritarian) in managing political violence.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Presentation

Essay (1500 words)

One essay of 1,500 words, to be on a topic that differs from the summative essay. Students must also contribute to a team presentation.

Tore Bjorgo ed. Root Causes of Terrorism, Routledge (2005); Andrew Silke ed. Terrorists, Victims and Society, Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences, Wiley (2003); David Whittaker, The Terrorism Reader, Routledge (3rd edn, 2007); Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, Basic Books (1992); Arguing about War, Yale University Press (2004); Michael Ignatieff, The Lesser Evil. Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, Edinburgh University Press (2005); James Hughes, Chechnya from Nationalism to Jihad, University of Pennsylvania Press (2008); Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, University of Pennsylvania Press (2004) and Leaderless Jihad, Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century, University of Pennsylvania Press (2007), and Misunderstanding Terrorism, University of Pennsylvania Press (2016); Jeff Victoroff and Arie W. Kruglanski eds, Psychology of Terrorism. Classic and Contemporary Insights, Psychology Press (2009); Cas Mudde, The Populist Radical Right: A Reader, Routledge (2017).

Essay (100%, 5000 words) in Winter Term Week 1