Week 1

Oct 5

The Radical Milieu of Terrorism: Groups, Movements, Networks and Lone Wolves

Required readings:

Stefan Malthaner and Peter Waldmann. 2014. The Radical Milieu: Conceptualizing the Supportive Social Environment of Terrorist Groups

OR watch the following short videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHo15RLTTJc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8lqEkGCLwo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI20dfaNWMs

Week 2

Oct 12

The Role of Ideology in Contemporary Terrorism: Islamist and Right-wing

Case for a presentation: Islamic State or Far Right in Europe

Required readings:

Klein, Graig R.. 2016. Ideology Isn't Everything: Transnational Terrorism, Recruitment Incentives, and Attack Casualties, Terrorism and Political Violence, 28:5, 868-887

Jeppe, Fuglsang Larsen & Sune Qvotrup Jensen. 2021. Everyday Religion and Radical Islamism – A Contribution to Theorizing the Role of Religion in Radicalization Studies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

Terrorism 360: EP 13: ISIS and Religiously Inspired Terrorism: A Conversation with Jessica Stern:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-13-isis-and-religiously-inspired-terrorism/id1437270954?i=1000425584372

Recommended readings:

Roy, Olivier. 2017. Political Islam after the Arab Spring, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2017.

A.W. et al. 2013. Terrorism--a (self) love story: redirecting the significance quest can end violence, October 2013 American Psychologist 68(7):559-575

Week 3

Oct 19

Mobilizations Effect of Grievances in Terrorism

Case for a presentation: Ireland (IRA) and Palestine (IRGUN, LEHI)

Required readings:

Piazza, James A. 2006. Rooted in Poverty?: Terrorism, Poor Economic Development, and Social Cleavages, Terrorism and Political Violence, 18:1, 159-177

Schmid P. Alex. 2016. Links between Terrorism and Migration, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism the Hague (ICCT)

Recommended readings:

Berrebi Claude. 2007. ‘Poverty and Terrorism among Palestinians’, Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, 2007, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-38

Alan B. Krueger and Jitka Malečková. 2003. Education, Poverty, and Terrorism: is there a causal connection?, Journal of Economic Perspectives, VOL. 17, NO. 4, Fall 2003 (119-144)

Week 4

Oct 26

Social Networks, Collective action, Collective Identities, Charismatic Leaders

Case for a presentation: The Red Brigades or ETA

Required readings:

Lorenzo Bosi and Donatella Della Porta. 2012. ‘Micro-mobilization into Armed Groups: Ideological, Instrumental and Solidaristic Paths’, December 2012, Qualitative Sociology

Clark McCauley & Sophia Moskalenko 2008 Mechanisms of Political Radicalization: Pathways Toward Terrorism

Ingram J. Haroro (2013) “The Charismatic Leadership Phenomenon in Radical and Militant Islamism” Chapter 1

Recommended readings:

Donatella Della Porta. 2008. Research on Social Movements and Political Violence

Dina Al Raffie. 2013. Social Identity Theory for Investigating Islamic Extremism in the Diaspora, Journal for Strategic Security Vol. 6 > No. 4 (2013)

Passy Florence. 2002. “Social Networks Matter. But How?” In ‘Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action Mario Diani and Doug McAdam’

Cristina Flesher Fominaya. 201. ‘Collective Identity in Social Movements: Central Concepts and Debates’

Ingram J. Haroro (2013) “The Charismatic Leadership Phenomenon in Radical and Militant Islamism” Chapter 2

Thomas Hegghammer. 2020. The Caravan Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 3 The Fighter (47-65).

Tim Pat Coogan. 2002. Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland

Bergen, Peter L. The Osama bin Laden I know: An oral history of al Qaeda's leader. Simon and Schuster, 2006.

Gottschling, Von André. "Biographisches Porträt: Andreas Baader." Jahrbuch Extremismus & Demokratie 16 (2004): 187-203.

Fisher, Marc. "Baader-Meinhof Gang Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the RAF." Biography 32, no. 4. 2009. 924-925.

Cases to discuss in class: Osama Bin Laden (Al Qaeda), Michael Collins (IRA), Gudrun Ensslin & Andreas Baader (Red Army Faction).

Week 5

Nov 2

The Role of social media in terrorist propaganda. Cyber activism and cyber warriors. How to counter terrorist activities online?

Case for presentation: The Islamic State

Required readings:

Meili Crisis Create, Connect, and Deceive: Islamic State Supporters' Maintenance of the Virtual Caliphate Through Adaptation and Innovation

Jytte Klausen. 2015. Tweeting the Jihad: Social Media Networks of

Western Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38:1, 1-22.

‘Deepfake Doomsday’: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Amplifying Apocalyptic Islamist Propaganda

https://gnet-research.org/2023/08/29/deepfake-doomsday-the-role-of-artificial-intelligence-in-amplifying-apocalyptic-islamist-propaganda/

Towards a Policy Framework for Addressing Violent Conspiracy Theory Movements

https://gnet-research.org/2023/09/07/towards-a-policy-framework-for-addressing-violent-conspiracy-theory-movements/

Recommended readings:

Adam Henschke. 2021. “Terrorism and the Internet of Things:Cyber-Terrorism as an Emergent Threat” in Henschke et. al. 2021. Ethics and Technology: Emerging challenges at the Frontiers of Counter Terrorism

Fainberg, Alisa. 2017. Spread the Word: Russia Social Media on the service of jihad

Whittaker Joe. 2021. The online behaviors of Islamic State terrorists in the United States

Edwards, Charlie and Gribbon Luke. 2013. ‘Pathways to Violent Extremism in the Digital Era

Online Jihadist Propaganda, Europol report 2020

Week 6

Nov 9

The Foreign Fighters Phenomenon: Recruitment Patterns

Case for presentation: Foreign fighters in the Afghan War or the Spanish Civil War

Required readings:

Coolsaet Rik. 2015. What drives Europeans to Syria, and to IS. Insights from the Belgian Case.

Sean C. Reynolds and Mohammed M. Hafez. 2017. Social Network Analysis of German Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq, Terrorism and Political Violence.

Koch Ariel. 2019. ‘The Non-Jihadi Foreign Fighters: Western Right-Wing and Left-Wing Extremists in Syria’.

Recommended readings:

Thomas Hegghammer. 2013. “Should I Stay or Should I Go? Explaining Variation in Western Jihadists' Choice between Domestic and Foreign Fighting”, American Political Science Review, 107(1), 1-15.

Malet David ‘The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in Foreign Fighters: Transnational Identity in Civic Conflicts

Legiec Arkadiusz 'Profiling Foreign Fighters in Eastern

Ukraine: A Theoretical Introduction', NATO Science for Peace and Security Series - E: Human and Societal Dynamics, Volume 134.

Dawson Lorne L. Comparative Analysis of the Data on Western Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq: Who Went and Why’, ICCT

Lorne L. Dawson & Amarnath Amarasingam. 2017. Talking to Foreign Fighters: Insights into the Motivations for Hijrah to Syria and Iraq

Malet David. 2015. Foreign Fighter Mobilization and Persistence in a Global Context.

Week 7

Nov 16

Framing and Narratives: Terorrists’ response to real-life events.

The discourse of Revolution and Defensive Mobilization

Case for presentation: Far Right in Europe

Requi