Office: UCA 363 
Office Hours: Office Hours for Distance Learning Format Courses: 
Flexible mutually agreed on appointment days and times with individual students using email.  Communication for appointments through email.
Dr. Leder's email address: al04@txstate.edu

Class Days and Times  TBA

Note on Links:  For all indicated links in this syllabus to the Texas State University Library please use this link: Texas State University Library.
A number of articles in this syllabus are accessible in pdf (portable document format) to students at the CANVAS site of Texas State University.  A Texas State University User Name/ID and password are required for access. Materials in this syllabus which indicate they are accessible at TRACS have been transferred to CANVAS and are no longer accessible in TRACS.  Additional materials in pdf may also be accessed at the CANVAS site for Political Science 4344/The Politics of Extremism.  Please check the pdf materials at the CANVAS site for this course. 

Texas State University Academic/Student Calendar @ https://www.registrar.txstate.edu/persistent-links/academic-calendar/academic-calendar-student.html

Note On Course & Syllabus Materials: Students may find books, articles, links, websites, and other materials provided in this syllabus useful and of interest. Their listing in this syllabus, including those which are required and recommended, does not necessarily indicate endorsement of or agreement with any views or positions on any issues found in these materials, websites, or on other sites to which they may provide links.

Note On Access To Articles:  Access to articles through the Texas State University Library @Texas State University Library available to all Texas State University students, requires a valid User Name and a Password.  Most of the links in this syllabus provide direct access to the article.

Password Protected Materials: Some materials on this web syllabus are password protected and are directly accessible @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. These materials are for student use. The password will be provided to students in the course.

Note: Wikipedia may be used in several instances in this syllabus as a convenient reference on a variety of matters.  Students should be aware of the dispute among academics and others with respect to the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia and they should not assume that a Wikipedia entry is the last word or most accurate information on the subject. 

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OVERVIEW OF COURSE

ISIS - Link in this syllabus to a selection of readings on ISIS or scroll to Section IV.  Radical Islam & Terrorism.

Course Title
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

Topics
I. Conceptual Concerns: "Conventional", "Rancorous", & "Extremist" Politics
II. Terrorism: Definitions, "Causes", & Dimensions
III. Conceptualizing Terrorism: Strategic Choice; Product Of Psychological Forces; Fantasy; War; Culture
IV. Religion & Terrorism: Radical Islam
V. Suicide & Terrorism
VI. Women & Terrorism
VII. Islam in the West: Globalization, "Individualization", & Radicalism
VIII. Islam in Russia
IX. Defeating Terrorism: Terrorist Organization, Intelligence, Interrogation, & Moral Dimensions

Note On Access To Articles:  Access to articles through the Texas State University Library, available to all Texas State University students, requires a valid User Name and a Password.  Most of the links in this syllabus provide direct access to the article.

Password Protected Materials: Some materials on this web syllabus are password protected and are directly accessible @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. These materials are for student use. The password will be provided to students in the course.

Course Description & Purpose
This course is an undergraduate seminar on extremism with a focus on international terrorism.  Theoretical literature, cross-national studies, single-case studies, and visits to selected web sites serve as the basis for examination and understanding of this phenomenon.

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COURSE ORGANIZATION & STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES - Distance Learning Format
Zoom class meeting times will be flexible.  Generally, Zoom meetings will occur once every week. The day and time for these meetings will be announced. 
Attendance at webinars is encouraged.  Given the difficulties faced by many students and faculty at this time attendance at webinars will not be mandatory. 

Grades
This course includes two formats.  One is lecture when appropriate and the other is a webinar format when course materials make this suitable.
Determinants of Course Grade: Required short papers, likely no more than 3, on assigned readings and viewing materials.  Length and specifics of these papers TBA.  Dates for submission of each of these short papers TBA.
Oral Reports & Presentations and Webinar Participation when circumstances and conditions permit.

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Academic Honesty Statement/Texas State University
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Please see: Academic Honesty Statement for Texas State University @
http://www.txstate.edu/effective/upps/upps-07-10-01.html.
An excerpt from this statement can be found at the end of this syllabus.
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COURSE CONTENT

Note On Course & Syllabus Materials: Students may find books, articles, links, websites, and other materials provided in this syllabus useful and of interest. Their listing in this syllabus, including those which are required and recommended, does not necessarily indicate endorsement of or agreement with any views or positions on any issues found in these materials, websites, or on other sites to which they may provide links.

Required Books
-Paul Berman/Terror And Liberalism (Norton 2003)
-Mia Bloom/Dying To Kill: The Allure Of Suicide Terror (Columbia University Press 2005)
-Ian Buruma & Avishai Margalit/Occidentalism: The West In The Eyes Of Its Enemies (Penguin 2004)
-Bruce Hoffman/Inside Terrorism (Columbia University Press 2006)
-Walter Reich (ed.)/Origins Of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States Of Mind (Johns Hopkins University Press 1990 & 1998)

Recommended Books For Additional Reading On Issues Related To This Course:
(Please Note: These books are listed for the benefit and convenience of interested students. They are NOT required reading.)
Jean Bethke Elshtain/Just War Against Terror (Basic Books 2003)
Joseph Conrad/Under Western Eyes (Penguin - First Published 1911)
David Cook/Understanding Jihad (University of California Press 2005)
*Jessica A. Coope/The Martyrs of Cordoba:Community & Conflict In An Age Of Mass Conversion [During Muslim Rule In Spain 850-859]/(Univ. Of Nebraska Press1995)
Joel S. Fetzer, J. Christopher Soper/Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany (Cambridge University Press 2005)
Fawaz A.Gerges/The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press 2005)
Philip Jenkins/Images Of Terror;What We Can And Cannot Know About Terrorism (Aldine de Gruyter 2003)
Farhad Khosrokhavar/Suicide Bombers: Allah's New Martyrs (Pluto Press 2005-Translated from the original 2002 French editon)
Walter Laqueur/No End To War: Terrorism In The Twenty-First Century (Continuum 2003)
Matthew Levitt/Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (Yale University Press 2006)
Ami Pedahzur/Suicide Terrorism (Polity Press 2005)
Olivier Roy/Globalized Islam: The Search For A New Ummah (Columbia University Press 2004)
Marc Sageman/Understanding Terror Networks (University of Pennsylvania Press 2004)
*Coope, The Martyrs of Cordoba, is not about terrorism.  This overlooked, interesting book provides insight into the connection between religion and a willingness and even desire to die in defense of one's faith among radical Christians who feared assimilation into the flourishing Arab Muslim culture during the period of Muslim rule of much of Spain or al-Andalus.

Required Articles
Required articles are listed separately in each section of the syllabus.

Required Films/Videos
One Day In September (1999) [1hr. 34 min.]
The film One Day In September is accessible @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8VHxcb8kFA
Academy Award winning documentary on the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympics in Munich.

Recommended Films/Videos
My Son The Fanatic (British 1997) [1hr. 27 min.]
For more on this film see: June Thomas/The First 7/7 Movie: In the Wake of the London Bombings, a look back at My Son the Fanatic/slate.com/July 18 2005
Excerpt from June Thomas essay on the film My Son The Fanatic:
"After 9/11, the big question was why: Why do they hate us? In the days following 7/7, everyone seems to be asking how: How could apparently assimilated, British-born Muslims end up stuffing bombs into their backpacks and murdering dozens of their compatriots in the Tube and on a London double-decker bus?"

Some possible answers are offered in Udayan Prasad's 1997 movie My Son the Fanatic. Written by Hanif Kureishi (based on a skeletal short story he first published in The New Yorker), the film shows how the British-born son of Pakistani immigrants morphs from a clothes-obsessed, cricket-playing, music-loving accountancy student into a devout Muslim who rails against the corruption and emptiness of Western society, much to the uncomprehending consternation of his father."

Hate (French w/English subtitles 1995 [1hr. 35 min.]
An intense, violent film that depicts the life of angry, disaffected minority youth in the suburbs of Paris.  Offers some insight into the perspective of mostly Muslim rioting youth in France, although the three young men on whom this disturbing film focuses are ethnically African, Arab, and Jewish.
For more on this film see: Alan Riding/In France, Artists Have Sounded the Warning Bells for Years NYT November 24, 2005
Excerpt from Alan Riding essay on the film Hate:
"So life often imitates art. Yet with the recent uprisings in some French immigrant neighborhoods, this cliché came with a new twist: art in the form of movies and rap music has long been warning that French-born Arab and black youths felt increasingly alienated from French society, that their banlieues were ripe for explosion.

Certainly, anyone who saw Mathieu Kassovitz's film, 'La Haine', or 'Hate' a decade ago had no reason to be surprised by this fall's violence. At the time, Kassovitz's portrayal of a seething immigrant Paris suburb, even his choice of the word 'hate' for his title, seemed shocking, even exaggerated. Today, the movie could almost pass as a documentary.

In 'Hate', burning cars light up the soulless space between high-rise public housing projects as local residents protest the beating of a young Arab, Ahmed. Nearby, graffiti proclaim: 'Don't forget, the police kill.' Three angry and restless youths - a Jew, an Arab and a black - visit Ahmed in the hospital and are themselves beaten by the police. They plan revenge."

Chaos (French w/English subtitles 2001 [1hr. 49 min.]
"Although comedy takes precedence in most parts of the film, it is the social commentary part that will spark the most debate. France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, mostly from its citizens who are from its former colonies in North Africa. Culture clashes are inevitable when a burgeoning and mostly traditional Muslim society slowly assimilates itself within a Western society that lives by much different values. In this film, Serreau tries to address the hot issue of traditional Muslim society’s treatment of women, specifically the issue of fathers 'selling' their teenage daughters into marriages with much older men. Melodrama aside, 'Chaos' has a serious message to convey to its audience and it does it with force and without fear".
Excerpt from:  http://www.dvdtown.com/review/chaos/11612/1928/

For a Review Essay on Films Related to Islam in the West see:
Alan Riding/On Screen, Tackling Europe's New Reality (Review of Films by and/or about Muslims In Europe-w/links to information on noted films)/NYT/January 18 2005

Munich (Spielberg 2005 [2hrs. 44 min.]) See reviews below in "3. Dimensions Of Terrorism: Ethno-Nationalist & Separatist Terrorism; International Terrorism" in Section II.

Topics For Reading, Oral Presentations, & Discussion

I. Conceptualizing Political Behavior: "Conventional", "Rancorous", & "Extremist" Politics
Lecture & Discussion
Readings: Joel Olson, "The Freshness of Fanaticism: The Abolitionist Defense of Zealotry",  Perspectives on Politics, Volume 5, Number 4, December 2007, pp. 685-701.  This article by Joel Olson is accessible @ http://journals.cambridge.org.libproxy.txstate.edu/action/displayFulltext?type=6&fid=1429516&jid=PPS&volumeId=5&issueId=04&aid=1429508&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1537592707072179.  Texas State University Library link.  A valid university ID and password are required for access.  This article is also accessible in pdf in the Files section of CANVAS for Political Science 4344 The Politics of Extremism
Abstract:
Zealotry or fanaticism is increasingly regarded as one of the principal threats to liberal democracy in the twenty-first century. Yet even as it is universally disparaged, zealotry is a severely understudied concept. This article seeks to formulate a critical theory of zealotry and investigate its relationship to democracy through a close reading of the speeches of the radical abolitionist orator Wendell Phillips. The American abolitionists were passionate democrats. Yet many of them, such as Phillips, were also self-defined fanatics who believed in using extremist language and tactics on behalf of the slave. Phillips's speeches suggest a specifically political definition of zealotry as a strategy that seeks to mobilize populations in defense of a particular position by dividing the public sphere into friends (those who support the position) and enemies (those who oppose it) and pressuring the moderates in between. Through his defense of fanaticism and his argument for disunion, Phillips articulates a democratic form of fanaticism that challenges common pejorative associations of zealotry with irrationality, intolerance, fundamentalism, or terrorism.  (boldface added)

Jon Grinspan, "Was Abolitionism a Failure?", NYT, February 1, 2015, Sunday Review, p. 6. @ http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/was-abolitionism-a-failure/?smid=pl-share.
Excerpt:
"But before abolitionism succeeded, it failed. As a pre-Civil War movement, it was a flop. Antislavery congressmen were able to push through their amendment because of the absence of the pro-slavery South, and the complicated politics of the Civil War. Abolitionism’s surprise victory has misled generations about how change gets made.
...
The problem is, that’s not really how slavery ended. Those upright, moral, prewar abolitionists did not succeed. Neither did the stiff-necked Southern radicals who ended up destroying the institution they went to war to maintain. It was the flexibility of the Northern moderates, those flip-floppers who voted against abolition before they voted for it, who really ended 250 years of slavery.

Abolitionists make better heroes, though, principled and courageous and seemingly in step with 21st century values. But people from the past who espoused beliefs we hold today were usually rejected at the time. We can only wonder which of today’s unpopular causes will, in 150 years, be considered the abolitionism of 2015."

Cass R. Sunstein, "The Polarization of Extremes", Chronicle of Higher Education, December 14, 2007, Volume 54, Issue 16, p. B9. 
@ https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-polarization-of-extremes/  This article is accessible in pdf in the Files section of CANVAS for Political Science 4344 The Politics of Extremism
"... an experiment conducted in Colorado in 2005, designed to cast light on the consequences of self-sorting.
...  In almost every case, people held more-extreme positions after they spoke with like-minded others.
... 
A key consequence of this kind of self-sorting is what we might call enclave extremism. When people end up in enclaves of like-minded people, they usually move toward a more extreme point in the direction to which the group's members were originally inclined. Enclave extremism is a special case of the broader phenomenon of group polarization, which extends well beyond politics and occurs as groups adopt a more extreme version of whatever view is antecedently favored by their members. Why do enclaves, on the Internet and elsewhere, produce political polarization? The first explanation emphasizes the role of information.  (boldface added)

The final explanation is the most subtle, and probably the most important. The starting point here is that on many issues, most of us are really not sure what we think. Our lack of certainty inclines us toward the middle. Outside of enclaves, moderation is the usual path. Now imagine that people find themselves in enclaves in which they exclusively hear from others who think as they do. As a result, their confidence typically grows, and they become more extreme in their beliefs. Corroboration, in short, reduces tentativeness, and an increase in confidence produces extremism. Enclave extremism is particularly likely to occur on the Internet because people can so easily find niches of like-minded types — and discover that their own tentative view is shared by others".

For an interesting discussion of the state of Internet use circa 2012 with implications for the observations of Cass Sunstein in his article "The Polarization of Extremes" noted immediately above, see:
Evgeny Morozov, "The Death of the Cyberflâneur", NYT, Sunday, February 5, 2012 Sunday Review
Today’s Internet is a place for getting things done, pushing aside the cyberflâneur — the heir to the flâneur culture of 19th-century France.

"The flâneur wandered in the shopping arcades, but he did not give in to the temptations of consumerism; the arcade was primarily a pathway to a rich sensory experience — and only then a temple of consumption. His goal was to observe, to bathe in the crowd, taking in its noises, its chaos, its heterogeneity, its cosmopolitanism.
...
Something similar has happened to the Internet. Transcending its original playful identity, it’s no longer a place for strolling — it’s a place for getting things done. Hardly anyone 'surfs' the Web anymore. The popularity of the “app paradigm,” whereby dedicated mobile and tablet applications help us accomplish what we want without ever opening the browser or visiting the rest of the Internet, has made cyberflânerie less likely.
...
This is the very stance that is killing cyberflânerie: the whole point of the flâneur’s wanderings is that he does not know what he cares about. As the German writer Franz Hessel, an occasional collaborator with Walter Benjamin, put it, 'in order to engage in flânerie, one must not have anything too definite in mind.' Compared with Facebook’s highly deterministic universe, even Microsoft’s unimaginative slogan from the 1990s — 'Where do you want to go today?' — sounds excitingly subversive. Who asks that silly question in the age of Facebook?"

For more recent perspectives, see:
Tiana Gaudette, Ryan Scrivens and Vivek Venkatesh, "The Role of the Internet in Facilitating Violent Extremism: Insights from Former Right-Wing Extremists", Terrorism and Political Violence 16 July 2020
@ https://www-tandfonline-com.libproxy.txstate.edu/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2020.1784147
This article is accessible at the Texas State University Library.  A Texas State University ID and password are required for access.
Excerpt from this article:
"...our study findings reveal that, regardless of how individuals are first exposed to violent extremist ideologies and groups, it is the Internet that eventually facilitates processes of violent radicalization by enabling them to immerse themselves in extremist content and networks—a finding supported by empirical research on the role of the Internet in facilitating an array of violent extremist movements (e.g., the extreme right, jihadi, single issue) 54 and the extreme right-wing movement in particular.  And similar to previous research which observed that online spaces of the extreme right—from discussion forums to social media and fringe platforms—serve as important virtual communities for adherents to support one another, among other things,  interviewees in our study oftentimes reported that seasoned or veteran extreme-right wing adherents “took them under their wing” in online settings ..."

For another perspective with implications for Internet use and influence see: Robert Henderson, "Tell Only Lies",  City Journal, December 27, 2020
@https://www.city-journal.org/self-censorship  This article by Robert Henderson is also accessible in pdf in the Files section of the CANVAS site for The Politics of Extremism Political Science 4344.
"Americans are increasingly afraid to express themselves honestly"

Dylan Rothman,  "Are People Lying About Being Woke?", Commentary Magazine, September 2020 
@ https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/dylan-rothman/adopting-woke-attitudes-preference-falsification/
Note: Commentary Magazine is a limited access site.
Dylan Rothman's article is posted in pdf in the Files section of the CANVAS site for The Politics of Extremism Political Science 4344.
Timur Kuran's book (see below) on this subject is referenced in this article. See below for more on Timur Kuran's book Private Truths, Public Lies.

Timur Kuran, Private Truths, Public Lies (Harvard University Press, June 1998)
A limited preview of this book is accessible @https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/ADPEDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
See the preface and the limited preview of Chapter 1 "The Significance of Preference Falsification".

Jack Nicas, Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel, "Millions Flock to Telegram and Signal as Fears Grow Over Big Tech", The New York Times, January 14, 2021@ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/technology/telegram-signal-apps-big-tech.html?referringSource=articleShare

Written by Quillette Magazine  (Note: The authors of this essay are not identified.), "Social-Media Oligopolists Are the New Railroad Barons.  It's Time for Washington to Treat Them Accordingly",  Quillette,  January 11, 2021
@ https://quillette.com/2021/01/11/social-media-oligopolists-are-the-new-railroad-barons-its-time-for-washington-to-treat-them-accordingly/

Michael Lind, "America’s New Corporate Tyranny",  Tablet Magazine, January 16, 2021
@ https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/americas-new-corporate-tyranny

Additional Perspectives on Internet Use Including Communication and Censorship
Evgeny Morozov, The Perils of Perfection, NYT, Sunday Review, March 3, 2013
"... a pervasive and dangerous ideology that I call 'solutionism': an intellectual pathology that recognizes problems as problems based on just one criterion: whether they are 'solvable' with a nice and clean technological solution at our disposal. Thus, forgetting and inconsistency become 'problems' simply because we have the tools to get rid of them — and not because we’ve weighed all the philosophical pros and cons. (boldface added)

Solutionists do not limit themselves to fixing the problems of individuals; they are as keen to fix the problems of institutions. Civic-minded start-ups ... which help(s) people create and join political movements, seek to bypass the conventional party system and allow individuals to practice politics without any mediation by institutions, on the assumption that the only reason we needed representative democracy in the past was because the communication costs were too high. Now that digital technologies have lowered the costs of participation, political parties can go the way of the dodo and be replaced, ad-hoc style, by online groups of concerned citizens.
...
Solutionists err by assuming, rather than investigating, the problems they set out to tackle. Given Silicon Valley’s digital hammers, all problems start looking like nails, and all solutions like apps." (boldface added)

For the implications for censorship and communication of the increasing use of apps or applications in Internet use, see:
Farhad Manjoo, "Clearing Out the App Stores: Government Censorship Made Easier", NYT, January 18, 2017 @ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/technology/clearing-out-the-app-stores-government-censorship-made-easier.html?_r=0
From this article by Farhad Manjoo:
"For more than a decade, we users of digital devices have actively championed an online infrastructure that now looks uniquely vulnerable to the sanctions of despots and others who seek to control information. We flocked to smartphones, app stores, social networks and cloud storage. Publishers like The New York Times are investing in apps and content posted to social networks instead of the comparatively open World Wide Web. Some start-ups now rely exclusively on apps; Snapchat, for instance, exists only as a mobile app.

Compared with older forms of distributing software, apps downloaded from app stores are more convenient for users and often more secure from malware, and they can be more lucrative for creators. But like so much else online now, they risk feeding into mechanisms of central control. In most countries, the Apple and Google app stores are the only places to find apps for devices running their respective operating systems".

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

II. Terrorism
1. Defining Terrorism: An Overview
Readings: Hoffman, Chapter 1
A limited preview of Bruce Hoffman's book Inside Terrorism Chapter 1 is accessible at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Inside_Terrorism/_ayrAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Click on Preview and then scroll to the 2006 preface of the 6th edition and then continue scrolling to Chapter 1.  Chapter 1 includes pages 1 through 42.  This limited preview provides access to pp. 1 through 35.

Laqueur (recommended) pp. 138-149 and Appendix, pp.232-238.

Clinton Watts, "Inspired, Networked & Directed - The Muddled Jihad of ISIS & al-Qaeda Post Hebdo", January 12, 2015 http://warontherocks.com/.
(Note: The link to this article by Clinton Watts is also listed in this syllabus in Section IV, 2. Readings on ISIS.)

Avishag Gordon, "Terrorism as an Academic Subject after 9/11: Searching the Internet Reveals a Stockholm Syndrome Trend", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, January-February 2005, Vol. 28: 45-59 @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to section on "Terrorism" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course. 
For some discussion of the "Stockholm Syndrome" in a different context, see this recommended article on Patty Hearst immediately below:

For background information on the related issue of "brainwashing", see this highly recommended article on the 1962 film "The Manchurian Candidate":
Susan L. Carruthers,"The Manchurian Candidate (1962) & The Cold War Brainwashing Scare", Historical Journal Of Film, Radio & Television, March1998.
The classic film on conspiracy thinking referred to by both the left and the right. "Brainwashed" Americans held as prisoners of war by the North Koreans and others during the Koran War of 1950-1953 return to America where one of them has been programmed to commit assassination.  See this review of the film "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962).  This article is directly accessible with a valid Texas StateUniversity User Name and password @ http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=472884&site=ehost-live.

2. "Causes" Of Terrorism

Readings: Laqueur, Chapter 1 (recommended).
James Q. Wilson/What Makes a Terrorist?/City Journal/Winter 2004

For a study which examines a perceived link between economic conditions and recruitment to the radical Islamist group Boko Haram in Nigeria (boldface added), see:
William W. Hansen (with the assistance of Kingsley Jima, Nurudeen Abbas and Basil Abia), "Poverty and 'Economic Deprivation Theory': Street Children, Qur’anic Schools/almajirai and the Dispossessed as a Source of Recruitment for Boko Haram and other Religious, Political and Criminal Groups in Northern Nigeria", Perspectives On Terrorism, Volume 10, No. 5 (2016)
@
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.terrorismanalysts.com%2Fpt%2Findex.php%2Fpot%2Farticle%2Fview%2F543%2Fhtml&data=01%7C01%7Cal04%40txstate.edu%7C3ffc5bc42bc24ef81a4608d45da24448%7Cb19c134a14c94d4caf65c420f94c8cbb%7C0&sdata=XpGz8g70dk68bd2mc7nsHypRCJWEzheCS%2Bv%2F5kOubkQ%3D&reserved=0
Abstract:
Street children, many of whom are ... are part of a vast underclass that populates the cities of Northern Nigeria. Many of these children and young adults have no means of support other than begging for their daily food, petty crime or providing casual labor. For the most part illiterate, they have few educational skills that would allow them to function in a modern economy. This article argues that the appalling economic conditions experienced by these young people makes them prime targets for recruitment into fanatical religious groups such as Boko Haram, or into one or another of the political/criminal gangs – generically called the ‘Yan Daba’–that proliferate in northern Nigerian cities. It further argues that the underclass from which these young people emerge is the direct consequence of the failed governance of the parasitic predator class that dominates the post-colonial Nigerian state. This, in turn, makes attempts at de-radicalization and bolstering the security forces doomed to failure – unless there are far-reaching social reforms that would undermine the very class that dominates the post-colonial state.  (boldface added)
For additional information on Boko Haram and links to numerous materials with varying perspectives, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram.
Note:  Materials posted on wikipedia are often changed or challenged.  The posting of this wikipedia link to materials on Boko Haram does not necessarily indicate agreement or disagreement with conclusions or perspectives in these materials.

3. Dimensions Of Terrorism
a. Ethno-Nationalist & Separatist Terrorism
Readings: Hoffman, Chapter 2.
A limited preview of Chapter 2 of Bruce Hoffman's book Inside Terrorism is accessible
@ https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/RSzyEx4do48C?hl=en&gbpv=1

Peter A. Coclanis, "Terror in Burma: Buddhists vs. Muslims",   World Affairs, December 2013 @ Texas State University Library. A Texas State University User ID and password are required for access.
Excerpts from this article:
"It seems pretty clear that what is going on in most of Burma right now is more akin to terrorism than to sectarian conflict, as some have preferred to style it. Even in Rakhine State, where there is a large Muslim minority and the violence is somewhat less one-sided, the power of the Buddhist majority—supported, when necessary, by the Buddhist Bamar-controlled government—is ironhanded. To be sure, Muslims have often been accused of instigating specific incidents across Burma—there have been an uncanny number of rumors of Muslim men attempting to rape Buddhist women, for example—but the weight of the evidence suggests that such rumors are more often than not fictions useful primarily for provocation or to rationalize Buddhist promoting, or at least supporting, violence.  (boldface added)
... 

b. The Internationalization of Terrorism
Readings: Hoffman, Chapter 3.

c. Public Opinion: Old & New Media
Readings: Hoffman, Chapters 6, 7.

See also: Alexander Wolff, "When the Terror Began", Sports Illustrated, August 26 2002 @ http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=7206282&site=ehost-live
Texas State University permalink.  A valid User Name and Password are required.

See also: Andrew Keh, "In Munich, a Tribute to Israeli Athletes and Families' Persistence", NYT, August 30, 2017 @
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/sports/olympics/munich-olympic-massacre-1972-memorial-israeli-athletes.html?mcubz=0&_r=0

Munich (Spielberg 2005 [2hrs. 44 min.] )
See:  Aaron J. Klein/The History Behind Munich: Separating truth from fiction in Spielberg's movie/Slate/December 23 2005
David Brooks, "What 'Munich' Left Out", NYT, December 11, 2005 @ http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2005/12/what_munich_lef.php
This Brooks article can also be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library. A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.  This article can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Terrorism" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.
Edward Rothstein/Seeing Terrorism as Drama With Sequels and Prequels/NYT/December 26 2005
Leon Wieseltier, "Hits-Washington Diarist", The New Republic, December 19 2005.  The complete text of Wieseltier's essay can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

III. Conceptualizing Terrorism
1. Terrorism As Strategic Choice
Readings: Martha Crenshaw, "The Logic Of Terrorism: Terrorist Behavior As A Product Of Strategic Choice" in Reich, Chapter 1.
Martha Crenshaw, "The Logic Of Terrorism: Terrorist Behavior As A Product Of Strategic Choice" in Walter Reich (ed.), Origins of Terrorism, Chapter 1.
Note: This link opens on the cover of Walter Reich (ed.), Origins of Terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind (Woodrow Wilson Center Press & John Hopkins University Press, 1990, 1998).  Scroll to the Table of Contents and click on the link for Chapter 1 for direct access to Martha Crenshaw's essay.

Max Abrahms/What Terrorists Really Want: Terrorist Motives and Counterterrorism Strategy, International Security Volume 32, Number 4, Spring 2008, pp. 78-105.
Abstract
What do terrorists want? No question is more fundamental for devising an effective counterterrorism strategy. The international community cannot expect to make terrorism unprofitable and thus scarce without knowing the incentive structure of its practitioners. The strategic model—the dominant paradigm in terrorism studies—posits that terrorists are political utility maximizers. According to this view, individuals resort to terrorism when the expected political gains minus the expected costs outweigh the net expected benefits of alternative forms of protest. The strategic model has widespread currency in the policy community; extant counterterrorism strategies seek to defeat terrorism by reducing its political utility. The most common strategies are to fight terrorism by decreasing its political benefits via a strict no concessions policy; decreasing its prospective political benefits via appeasement; or decreasing its political benefits relative to nonviolence via democracy promotion. Despite its policy relevance, the strategic model has not been tested. This is the first study to comprehensively assess its empirical validity. The actual record of terrorist behavior does not conform to the strategic model’s premise that terrorists are rational actors primarily motivated to achieving political ends. The preponderance of empirical and theoretical evidence is that terrorists are rational people who use terrorism primarily to develop strong affective ties with fellow terrorists. Major revisions in both the dominant paradigm in terrorism studies and the policy community’s basic approach to fighting terrorism are consequently in order.
Note: Older browsers may not work for access to periodicals at the Texas State University Library. New or recent browsers are best. On some browsers, it may be necessary or more convenient to save the article to desktop as pdf with the extension .pdf following the title of the article.  A valid Texas State University User Name and password are required.

This Max Abrahms article, "What Terrorists Really Want",  is also accessible in pdf in the Files section of CANVAS for Political Science 4344 The Politics of Extremism

Scott Shane, "From Minneapolis to ISIS: An American's Path to Jihad", NYT, March 22, 2015 @
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/world/middleeast/from-minneapolis-to-isis-an-americans-path-to-jihad.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Films/Videos:
The Battle Of Algiers (1967) [French With English Subtitles - 2hrs. 1 min.]

Out there I’m a useless guy, unemployed and cursed by my family,” one militant said. “Here I’m a commander. My words have weight.”

Recommended:
Joseph Conrad/Under Western Eyes (Penguin - First Published 1911)
For remarks on the insights of Conrad's book, see: Tom Reiss/The True Classic of Terrorism/NYT/September 11, 2005

4. Terrorism As Totalitarianism's War Against Liberalism
Readings:

Scott McLemee/Fighting Words:Camus, Sartre, And The Rift That Helped Define Them/bookforum.com/Spring 2004

For a negative critique of Paul Berman's book, Terror and Liberalism, see:
Ian Buruma/Revolution from Above (A review of Paul Berman's Terror and Liberalism)/New York Review of Books/Vol. 50, No. 7, May 01, 2003

Western intellectuals without any sort of Middle Eastern background would naturally have manifested an ardent solidarity with their Middle Eastern and Muslim counterparts who stand in the liberal vein — the Muslim free spirits of our own time, who argue in favor of human rights, rational thought (as opposed to dogma), tolerance and an open society.

But that was then. In today’s Middle East, the various radical Islamists, basking in their success, paint their liberal rivals and opponents as traitors to Muslim civilization, stooges of crusader or Zionist aggression. And, weirdly enough, all too many intellectuals in the Western countries have lately assented to those preposterous accusations, in a sanitized version suitable for Western consumption.  (boldface added)

Even in the Western countries, quite a few Muslim liberals, the outspoken ones, live today under a threat of assassination, not to mention a reality of character assassination. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-Dutch legislator and writer, is merely an exceptionally valiant example. But instead of enjoying the unstinting support of their non-Muslim colleagues, the Muslim liberals find themselves routinely berated in the highbrow magazines and the universities as deracinated nonentities, alienated from the Muslim world. Or they find themselves pilloried as stooges of the neoconservative conspiracy — quite as if any writer from a Muslim background who fails to adhere to at least a few anti-imperialist or anti-Zionist tenets of the Islamist doctrine must be incapable of thinking his or her own thoughts.

A dismaying development. One more sign of the power of the extremist ideologies — one more surprising turn of events, on top of all the other dreadful and gut-wrenching surprises".

For discussion of the similarities and differences between radical Islamism/Jihadism and fascism, see: David A. Charters, "Something Old, Something New...? Al Qaeda, Jihadism, and Fascism",  Terrorism & Political Violence, Spring 2007, Vol. 19, Issue 1 in section IV. 2C Jihad: Theory & Practice of this syllabus.

See also: Fouad Ajami/The Furrows of Algeria (review essay of The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal, translated by Frank Wynne [Europa Editions 2009] /The New Republic February 18, 2010, Vol. 241, Issue 2, pp. 27-33.  This is a direct permalink to the Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University user name and password are required.
From the product description at amazon.com:
"Banned in the author's native Algeria for of the frankness with which it confronts several explosive themes, The German Mujahid is a truly groundbreaking novel. For the first time, an Arab author directly addresses the moral implications of the Shoah (The Holocaust). But this richly plotted novel also leaves its author room enough to address other equally controversial issues-Islamic fundamentalism and Algeria's "dirty war" of the early 1990s, for example; or the emergence of grim Muslim ghettos in France's low-income housing projects. In this gripping novel, Boualem Sansal confronts these and other explosive questions with unprecedented sincerity and courage."

From Fouad Ajami's review essay:
"In Sansal's unforgettable portrait of this malevolent figure, the totalitarianism of the first half of the twentieth century speaks to, and finds an echo in, a new totalitarianism. Its insistence upon this echo is one of the novel's most significant contributions to our understanding. After all, the Islamists did not descend from the sky. They were radical children of the faith, literalists in the way they read the scripture, angry men committed to forcing history's pace. They were convinced that the society around them had abandoned and betrayed the true faith. And in their attitude toward the Jews, in the way they dealt with the Zionist project in Palestine, and in the manner in which they came to read the Holocaust, the Islamists worked their will on older and "traditional" forms of prejudice, and forged a new and very lethal version of anti-Semitism." (boldface added)

See also: Ian Buruma, "The Origins Of Occidentalism", Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2004, Vol. 50, Issue 22, pp. B10-12.  Direct Texas State University permalink @
http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=12408860&site=ehost-live.  A valid Texas State University user name and password are required.

From the publisher's note for Ian Buruma & Avishai Margalit/Occidentalism: The West In The Eyes Of Its Enemies (Penguin 2004):
"Twenty-five years after Edward Said's Orientalism, a whole field of study has developed to analyze and interpret the denigrating fantasies of the exotic "East" that sustained the colonial mind. But what about the fantasies of "the West" in the eyes of our self-proclaimed enemies"?
For more on Edward Said's Orientalism and critics of his book, see:
Charles P. Freund/2001 Nights:The End Of The Orientalist Critique/Reason/December, 2001

Gary Kamiya/How Edward Said took intellectuals for a ride/Salon.com December 06, 2006
Maya Jasanoff/Before and After Said/London Review of Books, June 8, 2006
Efraim Karsh and Rory Miller/Did Edward Said Really Speak Truth to Power?/Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2008, pp. 13-21.

See also:
David Cannadine/Ornamentalism: How The British Saw Their Empire (Oxford Univ. Press 2001)
"David Cannadine's Ornamentalism is so stimulating and original that it will now and forever after be read hand in hand with Edward Said's Orientalism." (boldface added)  This is the comment of Wm. Roger Louis, Editor-in-Chief, The Oxford History of the British Empire, Oxford University Press.

Reviews of David Cannadine's Ornamentalism:
Sarah Lyall/Was the Sahib, Then Just a Snob?/NYT August 25, 2001
His (David Cannadine's book Ornamentalism) serves as a riposte of sorts to Edward Said's highly influential work ''Orientalism'' (1978), which argued that Western attitudes toward the nonwhite world have traditionally been informed by a manufactured notion of ''otherness,'' used both to interpret and control it and to bolster the West's own sense of identity.  Mr. Cannadine feels that Mr. Said's thesis is indeed valid, but only up to a point. (boldface added)
Benjamin Schwarz/A Bit Of Bunting/The Atlantic, November 2001

From Stanley Kurtz's article:
Is Islam the best way to understand the war on terror? Tribalism may offer a clearer view of our enemies' motivations.

"Universal male militarization, surprise attacks on apparent innocents based on a principle of collective guilt, and the careful group monitoring and control of personal behavior are just a few implications of a system that accounts for many aspects of Middle Eastern society without requiring any explanatory recourse to Islam. The religion itself is an overlay in partial tension with, and deeply stamped by, the dynamics of tribal life. In other words--and this is Salz-man's central argument--the template of tribal life, with its violent and shifting balance of power between fusing and fissioning lineage segments, is the dominant theme of cultural life in the Arab Middle East (and shapes even many non-Arab Muslim populations). At its cultural core, says Salzman, even where tribal structures are attenuated, Middle Eastern society is tribal society.
...
The swift and seemingly disproportionate resort to retaliatory force against apparently trivial offenses is an effective technique for suppressing future challenges. Most of the feuds Salzman describes, however weighty and enduring, break out over seemingly petty and inconsequential matters, like the mistaken appropriation of some palm trunks. Rifle shots, intentionally off the mark, are used to intimidate, as are calculated threats of murder. The careful use of targeted force and credible threats against Western critics of Islamism shows genuine mastery of the technique of deterrent intimidation. Here as elsewhere, an overtly religious action is actually shaped by a hidden tribal template.
...
The most disturbing lesson of all is that, in the absence of fundamental cultural change, the feud between the Muslim world and the West is unlikely ever to end. Tribal feuds simmer on and off for generations, with negotiated settlements effecting only temporary respites. Among the tribes of Waziristan, the saying goes: "I took my revenge early. I waited only 100 years." The Western liberal template takes an experience of peace under the lawful authority of a state as the normal human condition. In this view, when peaceful equilibrium is disturbed, reasonable men reason together to restore normalcy".

Philip Carl Salzman's first-person statement on his book may be read at @ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/04/culture_and_conflict_in_the_middle_east/.
"I argue that a major influence is Arab culture, grounded in Bedouin culture—understanding “culture” as cognitive frames which serve as “models of” the way the world is, and “models for” action in the future. Two major characteristics of Arab culture are particularist group loyalty, and balanced or complementary opposition. These models serve well for decentralized social control and security in segmentary tribal settings, but are uncongenial to inclusive polities and universalistic legal regimes.
...
Postcolonial theorists, inspired by Edward Said’s Orientalism, take a harder line, arguing that no generalization about the Middle East is valid, because such generalizations suppress the variety and diversity of reality, essentialize where no essence exists, and imposes disparaging interpretations in the service of imperialism and colonialism. But my judgment is that these postcolonial arguments are unsound and without foundation. First, all concepts and categories, without which thinking is impossible, are abstractions, encompassing the many variations of the unique individuals (whether trees, camels, or cultures) included. So abstraction and generalization are not only not the wrong things, they are the only things possible. Second, all peoples and societies are not the same; they are different, and differ significantly. Ignoring these indisputable differences is not good manners; it is ignorance or denial".

Matt Apuzzo, "Who Will Become a Terrorist? Research Yields Few Clues", NYT March 27, 2016.
@ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/world/europe/mystery-about-who-will-become-a-terrorist-defies-clear-answers.html

Return To Beginning Of Syllabus

IV. Religion & Terrorism: Radical Islam
1. Religion & Terrorism
Readings: Hoffman, Chapter  4.

Bernard Lewis, "The Roots Of Muslim Rage", Atlantic Monthly, September 1990.
This article by Bernard Lewis,"The Roots of Muslim Rage", is accessible in pdf in the Files section of CANVAS for Political Science 4344 Politics of Extremism.

2. Radical Islam & Terrorism
a. Origins
Readings: Laqueur, Chapter 2 (recommended).
Bernard Lewis, "The Revolt of Islam", The New Yorker, December 19, 2001 @ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/11/19/the-revolt-of-islam.

Quintan Wiktorowicz, "A Genealogy of Radical Islam", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, March-April 2005, Vol. 28: 75-97 @ http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=16495534&site=ehost-live.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.
 
_____________________________________________________________________________

ISIS - Readings

Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State (Publication dates 2016 and 2019)
@ https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Way_of_the_Strangers/7I-RDwAAQBAJ?hl=en
A limited preview is provided to both the Prologue and Chapter 1.
For a review which poses some research and analytical concerns about this book by Graeme Wood,
see Dexter Filkins, "What Do They Want? Graeme Wood Speaks With Supporters of ISIS", The New York Times, January 19, 2017
@ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/books/review/way-of-the-strangers-isis-graeme-wood.html
From this review:
"The first problem with Wood’s argument is the people he has chosen to speak for ISIS; with the exception of Georgelas, whom Wood did not meet, none of the characters featured in his book have actually fought for, or even joined, the Islamic State. They are fellow travelers, whose zealotry has not brought them to join the group they claim to support."

Rukmini Callimachi, "Not 'Lone Wolves' After All: How ISIS Guides World's Terror Plots From Afar", NYT  February 5, 2017 @
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/world/asia/isis-messaging-app-terror-plot.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
"Close examination of both successful and unsuccessful plots carried out in the Islamic State’s name over the past three years indicates that such enabled attacks are making up a growing share of the operations of the group, which is also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh."

Anonymous, "The Mystery of ISIS",  The New York Review of Books, August 13, 2015, Vol. 62, No. 13.
@ http://resolver.ebscohost.com.libproxy.txstate.edu/openurl?sid=EBSCO%3af6h&genre=article&issn=00287504&ISBN=&volume=62&issue=13&date=20150813&spage=27&pages=27-29&title=New+York+Review+of+Books&atitle=The+Mystery+of+ISIS.&aulast=&id=DOI%3a&site=ftf-live
Texas State University link.  Select the August 13, 2015 issue.  A valid Texas State University User Name (ID) and password are required for access.
Access to this article may also be possible @ The Mystery of ISIS and http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/08/13/mystery-isis/.
From this article:
"I have often been tempted to argue that we simply need more and better information. But that is to underestimate the alien and bewildering nature of this phenomenon. To take only one example, five years ago not even the most austere Salafi theorists advocated the reintroduction of slavery; but ISIS has in fact imposed it. Nothing since the triumph of the Vandals in Roman North Africa has seemed so sudden, incomprehensible, and difficult to reverse as the rise of ISIS. None of our analysts, soldiers, diplomats, intelligence officers, politicians, or journalists has yet produced an explanation rich enough—even in hindsight—to have predicted the movement’s rise.

We hide this from ourselves with theories and concepts that do not bear deep examination. And we will not remedy this simply through the accumulation of more facts. It is not clear whether our culture can ever develop sufficient knowledge, rigor, imagination, and humility to grasp the phenomenon of ISIS. But for now, we should admit that we are not only horrified but baffled." (boldface added)

Richard Barrett,  "THE ISLAMIC STATE", The Soufan Group,  (pdf)  November 2014.

Lee Smith & Hussein Abdul-Hussain, "On the Origin of ISIS", The Weekly Standard, September 8, 2014, Vol. 19, No. 48, pp.28-30 @  http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.txstate.edu/docview/1561358550/4BF59AAF1E8849E9PQ/18?accountid=5683.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Graeme Wood, "What ISIS Really Wants", Atlantic, March 2015, Vol. 315, Issue 2, pp78-94.  This article by Graeme Wood can be accessed @ http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=100848076&site=ehost-live (permalink). A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required. 
"The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it".

Bob de Graaff, "IS and its Predecessors: Violent Extremism in Historical Perspective", Perspectives On Terrorism, Research Note #160, Vol 10, No 5, 2016,
@ http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/544/html
Abstract:
Islamic State uses an age old apocalyptic narrative to attract followers and legitimatize its existence. This research note show which narrative elements were used during previous violence-inciting apocalyptic manifestation in Christianity and Western ideology and how they can be retraced in the communications and enactments of Islamic State. The use of such narratives explains why the movement has been so much more powerful in attracting followers than al-Qaeda. Based on historical experience the prospects of fighting such a movement without annihilating it are gloomy, the more so as apocalyptic movements have a tendency to provoke a confrontation with their opponents as a manifestation of the promised final battle between the forces of Good and Evil which will produce the salutary end state, both of which are central elements in their narrative.

Paul Berman, "Epidemics of Insanity: Euripides, Mao, and Qutb", Tablet, September 20, 2016
@ http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/213767/euripides-mao-and-qutb
How virulent contagions of political fanaticism spread across the globe—or, what the Muslim Brotherhood and its descendants share with The Little Red Book.

Audrey Kurth Cronin, "ISIS Is Not a Terrorist Group", Foreign Affairs, March 25, 2015, Vol. 94, Issue 2  @ http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=100961105&site=ehost-live (permalink). A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Sarah Burke, "How ISIS Rules", nyrblog December 09, 2014 @http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/dec/09/how-isis-rules/.

Matti Friedman, "The Age of the Terror Selfie", Tablet Magazine,  January 5, 2016.
"... the shooters in Paris or San Bernadino ... aren’t soldiers but storytellers. Along with many others ..., they have escaped despair into a fevered movie set where they are the directors and stars and everyone else is a disposable prop. We all need to understand this movie, because we’re all in it."
@ http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/196313/the-age-of-the-terror-selfie

Louisa Tarras-Wahlberg, "Seven Promises of ISIS to its Female Recruits" January 9, 2017, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism @ http://www.icsve.org/research-reports/seven-promises-of-isis-to-its-female-recruits/
Abstract
Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 close to 30 000 foreign recruits from more than 100 countries have migrated to the area of Iraq and Syria in support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Among those traveling is a historically unprecedented number of women. Why women are drawn to violent Islamic extremist groups is a not well-explored topic and a conundrum to many. Through a qualitative text analysis of official ISIS-propaganda this report investigates the pulls that draw women towards ISIS conceptualized as promises the organization makes to women. The report concludes that women are promised seven things: the possibility to fulfill their religious duty, become important state builders, experience deep and meaningful belonging and sisterhood, to live an exciting adventure in which they can find true romance, as well as being increasingly influential. Based on these findings one can argue that preventive counter measures targeting young women about each of these promises should be devised. Such counter measures need to creatively address the needs that the ISIS claims to be fulfilling while simultaneously debunking the ISIS propaganda lies of being able to deliver a perfect paradise on earth. Only by so doing can we decrease the attraction of the message delivered by the Islamic State.

Erin Mari Saltman and Melanie Smith, 'Till Martyrdom Do Us Part': Gender and the ISIS Phenomenon,  May 2015
Institute for Strategic Dialogue
From the Introduction: Although often assumed to be passive agents, women have played significant roles in a number of contemporary terrorist organizations. Violent extremist groups across the political and ideological spectrum have utilized female forces for a range of activities including logistics, recruitment, political safeguarding, operations, suicide bombing and combat.1 However, the recent unprecedented surge in female recruits to the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) has brought this phenomenon into sharp focus. For many there remain misperceptions and misunderstandings concerning the role women play within these violent networks, often paired with engendered responses to the radicalization of women.

Katrin Bennhold, "Jihad and Girl Power: How ISIS Lured 3 London Girls", NYT, August 17, 2015 (See links and video in this article.)
@ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/world/europe/jihad-and-girl-power-how-isis-lured-3-london-teenagers.html?_r=0

Rukmini Callimachi, "For Women Under ISIS, a Tyranny of Dress Code and Punishment", NYT December 12, 2016
@http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/world/middleeast/islamic-state-mosul-women-dress-code-morality.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Frukmini-callimachi&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=collection

Lorenzo Vidino and Seamus Hughes, "ISIS IN AMERICA: FROM RETWEETS TO RAQQA", December 2015 (Full Report.pdf), Program on Extremism, THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
@ https://cchs.gwu.edu/sites/cchs.gwu.edu/files/downloads/ISIS%20in%20America%20-%20Full%20Report.pdf
From the Report Description:
What explains the recent surge in American jihadi recruits? Who are the Americans lured by the siren songs of ISIS's propaganda? How do they embrace such radical ideology? What do they seek?

Iain R. Edgar, "Islamic State and Dream Warfare", https://sustainablesecurity.org/, September 8, 2016
@ https://sustainablesecurity.org/2016/09/08/islamic-state-and-dream-warfare/

Francis Robles, "Trying to Stanch Trinidad's Flow of Young Recruits to ISIS", NYT, February 21, 2017 @
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/world/americas/trying-to-stanch-trinidads-flow-of-young-recruits-to-isis.html

List of Readings for ISIS ends here.  Related materials may be found in the readings in other sections of this syllabus.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Matthias Küntzel/Jew-Hatred and Jihad: The Nazi Roots of the 9/11 attack/Weekly Standard September 17, 2007, Vol. 013, Issue 01
Jeffrey Goldberg/Seeds of Hate/NYT Sunday Book Review January 6, 2008
A German scholar argues that Muslim anti-Semitism can be traced to a project of the Nazi Party.  A review essay on Matthias Küntzel, Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 (Telos Press 2007).  Read the first chapter of this book.

b. Seyyid Qutb
Readings: Buruma & Margalit, pp. 101-149.

See also: Sayed Khatab, "Hakimiyyah and jahiliyyah in the thought of Sayyid Qutb", Middle Eastern Studies, July 2002, Vol. 38.  This article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.  This article can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

Links To Sayyid Qutb's Writings-"Milestones" & More online

On Seyyid Qutb in America, see: http://www.vagablogging.net/06-11/from-the-october-2006-issue-of-the-believer.html
See also: Benny Morris/Qutb and the Jews/The National Interest October 20, 2010. This is a review essay on John Calvert, Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism (Columbia University Press 2010).

Michael Scott Doran/The Saudi Paradox:The Schizophrenic Saudi State/Foreign Affairs/January-February 2004
"Saudi Arabia is in the throes of a crisis, but its elite is bitterly divided on how to escape it.  Liberal reformers seek rapprochement with the West while others side with an anti-American Wahhabi religious establishment that has much in common with al Qaeda".
This Doran article can also be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.   A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Bernard Lewis/What Went Wrong?/The Atlantic Monthly/January 2002
The complete text of this Lewis article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

David A. Charters, "Something Old, Something New...? Al Qaeda, Jihadism, and Fascism",  Terrorism & Political Violence, Spring 2007, Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp. 65-93, 29 pages.

Abstract (from author): [Note: This article by David Charters is referenced above in the section of this syllabus labeled "International Terrorism" - No. 4: "Terrorism As Totalitarianism's War Against Liberalism" - immediately above No. 5: "Terrorism As Murderous Occidentalism".]

This article attempts to answer the question: Is Al Qaeda a new fascist movement? It explores this issue by comparing the situations and ideas which gave birth to fascism and jihadism and the beliefs and behaviours common to both movements. The essay demonstrates a close coherence between the two movements, but concludes that the differences between them are significant enough to proclaim that they are not the same. Indeed, Al Qaeda's jihadism may warrant a new category of analysis. Jihadism's differences from fascism notwithstanding, defeating it will be very difficult.  (boldface added)

This article is directly accessible @ this Texas State University Library permalink: http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=24077999&site=ehost-live.
Note: On some browsers, it may be necessary or more convenient to save the article to desktop as pdf with the extension .pdf following the title of the article.  A valid Texas State University User Name and password are required.

d. Jihadis: The Near Enemy, The Far Enemy, & Internal Debate
Readings: David C. Rapoport, "Sacred Terror: A Contemporary example from Islam", Chapter 7 in Reich (ed.) - See especially Rapoport's analysis of Abd Al-Salam Faraj, author of "The Neglected Duty", referring to jihad.  Faraj coined the terms "near enemy" and "far enemy".

Recommended:
Fawaz A.Gerges/The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press 2005)

While convenient for Hamas and its supporters, this distinction is contradicted by the consistent if scattered findings of investigators, journalists, and analysts. A review ofthe evidence regarding the integration of Hamas' political activism, social services, and terrorism demonstrates the centrality of the group's overt activities to the organization's ability to recruit, indoctrinate, train, fund, and dispatch suicide bombers to attack civilian targets.

The main claim—that my work on suicide terrorism samples on the dependent variable—is simply wrong. Indeed, the authors paid no attention to the large portions of my recent book that explain what we know about factors that make resort to suicide terrorist campaigns more or less likely, and how we know it. Hence, this letter is mainly devoted to updating Ashworth, Clinton, Meirowitz, and Ramsay on my work. I also make a few comments about the general question of whether concerns about “sample bias” should carry significant weight when dealing with the complete universe of a phenomenon, as is the case in my work on suicide terrorism.

Bruce Hoffman/The Logic Of Suicide Terrorism/The Atlantic Monthly/June 2003
"The perceived randomness of suicide bombings is in large part responsible for the emotional suffering that they inflict on society. But the planners of these attacks use a strategy that is anything but random: they aim to relentlessly shrink to nothing the areas in which people can move freely".
The complete text of this Hoffman article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Bruce Hoffman; G. H. McCormick, "Terrorism, Signaling, & Suicide Attack", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, July-August 2004, Vol. 27, Issue 4.
This article by Hoffman and McCormick can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.  This article can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to section on "Terrorism" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

David Bukay/The Religious Foundations of Suicide Bombings: Islamist Ideology/Middle East Quarterly Fall 2006

Recommended:
David Brooks/The Culture Of Martyrdom:How Suicide Bombing Became Not Just A Means But An End/The Atlantic Monthly/June 2002
The complete text of this Brooks article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.
Egyptian Muftu's Opinions On Suicide Bombings & Jihad/Memri /October 01, 2003

Andrea Elliott/Where Boys Grow Up to Be Jihadis (a small neighborhood in the Moroccan city of Tetouan)/NYT Sunday Magazine, November 25, 2007
Many of the men involved in the Madrid train bombings came from one small neighborhood in the Moroccan city of Tetouan. A number of would-be suicide bombers in Iraq are from there, too.

"Since the start of the war, a few thousand foreign jihadis have heeded the call to join militant networks in Iraq. Most are men in their 20s. Typically, they fall under the influence of an imam who helps them contact intermediaries for the insurgents in Iraq, the American official told me. They go off expecting to fight a heroic battle but often find out after arriving in Iraq that they are to be deployed instead on suicide missions targeting other Muslims, the official said. Based on the accounts of captured fighters, even when they protest, they are sometimes given no choice.  'At the end of the day, nobody cares about these kids,' the official said. 'They are Al Qaeda precision-guided munition.' ...

3. Case Studies of Suicide Terrorism
a. Palestinian Suicide Bombing
Readings: Laqueur, Chapter 5 (recommended); Bloom, Chapter 2.

b. Suicide Attacks in Sri Lanka
Readings: Bloom, Chapter 3.

c. Kurdish Suicide Terrorism in Turkey
Readings: Bloom, Chapter 5.

VI. Women's Roles in Terrorism
1. Women's Role in Secular & Religious Terrorism
Readings:
Rukmini Callimachi, "For Women Under ISIS, a Tyranny of Dress Code and Punishment", NYT December 12, 2016
@http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/world/middleeast/islamic-state-mosul-women-dress-code-morality.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Frukmini-callimachi&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=collection 

Cindy D. Ness, "In the Name of the Cause: Women's Work in Secular and Religious Terrorism", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, September 2005, Vol. 28: 353-373.  This article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.
This article can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Terrorism" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

Rafia Zakaria, "Women and Islamic Militancy", Dissent Magazine, Winter 2015 @ http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/why-women-choose-isis-islamic-militancy.

Anat Berko, Edna Erez, "Gender, Palestinian Women, and Terrorism: Women's Liberation or Oppression?", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Volume 30, Issue 6, June 2007, pp. 493-519.  This article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.   A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required. (Note: Use the EBSCO data base and save to your desktop as a pdf file.)
Abstract:
Prior literature on women's participation in terrorism has paradoxically interpreted this involvement as a sign of women's newfound empowerment, and as an indication of ongoing gender oppression. The study examines the hypothesis that Palestinian women's involvement in terrorism indicates women's liberation. The data are derived from in-depth interviews with fourteen women who were detained or incarcerated in Israeli prisons for security offenses. The interviews shed light on the women's pathways to terrorism, the roles that they play in terrorist activity, and the aftermath of their security offenses within Palestinian society and culture. The study underlines the "no return" option and "no win" situation that Palestinian women who embark on terrorist activities encounter. The results demonstrate that although some women became involved in terrorism due to the sense of liberation that it provided, the women largely became disempowered in the aftermath of their offenses; rather than receiving praise for their activism as they had expected, they were shunned by others for their violation of gender expectations, and failure to fulfill traditional gender roles. The social and personal costs of involvement in terrorism for Palestinian women are analyzed, and policy implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Jolande Withuis/Suffer, fight, become a saint/signandsight.com June 12, 2007 (An essay on women and terrorism.)
"Muslima terrorism – to many this new word will sound like a contradiction in terms. This is an erroneous and dangerously naive response. The common association of women with peacefulness and harmony is a myth. Although it is quite rare for women to carry out terrorist attacks, the phenomenon is not new. (boldface added)
... Regardless of how different their respective cultures were, politics was traditionally the domain of men in all of the cultures. Women were excluded and as they were also considered to have no interest in politics, they had to prove, more than their male counterparts, their commitment and loyalty to the cause. More than that: to be allowed to participate at all, they also had to prove their courage, loyalty and competence to those sceptical and sexist brothers-in-arms, and refute the expectation that they would probably desert or fail. And there you have it: the pathway to taking it one step further.
... Political and spiritual female radicalism has a long tradition in which a pattern can be distinguished.  (boldface added)
... We should not overestimate the importance of the ancient texts in order to understand what is going on around us. The answer is not in the texts of Islam, but rather in how they are interpreted and in how they are used. It would be an illusion to think that we can find answers by studying the Koran, and a misunderstanding that we cannot comprehend anything without studying it. As a person radicalizes, the pure doctrine unmistakably becomes an obsession, but never without mediation: it always requires opportunistic interpretations and teachers. Women do not have enough power to push through a new interpretation as pure doctrine.
... Muslim fundamentalism is gender fundamentalism. Muslima terrorism is complex in that it concerns a faith that focuses on the global (and also smaller-scale) preservation of patriarchal power, while at the same time there are women who want to use this patriarchal faith to emancipate themselves, and who are even willing to resort to acts of terrorism. Based on the same ambiguity it could be appealing for their male brothers to "allow" their "sisters" to participate in the jihad, i.e.: use the women to aid terrorists or even for suicide attacks". (boldface appears in the essay)

2. Women in Jihad
Readings: David Cook, "Women Fighting in Jihad?", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, September 2005, Vol. 28: 375-384.
Anne Nivat, "The Black Widows: Chechen Women Join the Fight for Independence - and Allah", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, September 2005, Vol. 28: 413-419.
These articles can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.
These articles can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Terrorism" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

See also:
Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry/Russia Says Suicide Bomber Was Militant's Widow (with photo)/NYT April 2, 2010
Officials said one of two bombers in the Moscow subway attacks (March 29, 2010) was the 17-year-old widow of an insurgent.
See photo: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/04/03/world/03moscow-cnd-inline1/03moscow-cnd-inline1-popup.jpg.
"In this photo distributed by Newsteam, a Russian news agency, and published in Kommersant, a Russian daily newspaper, Dzhennet Abdullayeva is identified posing with her husband Umalat Magomedov. Russian investigators have said that Ms. Abdullayeva, 17, was one of the suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the Moscow subway on March 29, and Mr. Magomedov was a militant Islamist who was killed in 2009. The agency did not give a date for the photo or explain the circumstances in which it was taken."
From the article:
"... posing with his arm around this 17-year-old woman is the man who would put her on this path, a 30-year-old militant leader who lured her from her single mother, drew her into fundamentalist Islam and married her. He was killed by federal forces in December, driving her to seek revenge. On Friday, as the photograph circulated widely, the couple turned into an unsettling symbol of Islamic militancy in Russia — deeply repugnant to most people but also likely to be embraced by other extremists as a propaganda coup, a kind of Bonnie and Clyde of the insurgency.  (boldface added)
...
'These religious ideas are very attractive, because they give a kind of alternative to the world that exists,' said Zaur Gaziyev, editor in chief of Svobodnaya Respublika, an independent newspaper in Dagestan. 'And so this young girl, who grew up without a father, who didn’t know male power, suddenly she meets a strong, brutal man, who gives her the sense of support.'

'She is herself a child,' Mr. Gaziyev said. 'I don’t think she even understood what she was doing.'

In the photograph, Ms. Abdullayeva and her husband, Umalat Magomedov, are both brandishing weapons. In a separate photograph, she is holding a grenade. Her head is covered by a black Islamic scarf.

Ms. Abdullayeva — whose first name means 'paradise' in her local Dagestani language — was one of two female suicide bombers who attacked the Moscow subway system, killing 40 people and wounding scores, the authorities confirmed Friday.

She is a striking example of the phenomenon of the so-called Black Widows — young women from the Caucasus who are deployed as human bombs and sent off to kill civilians in Russian cities, often after their husbands are killed by security forces.

Especially active in the early part of the last decade, they have carried out at least 16 bombings, including two aboard planes.

An official at the Interior Ministry of Dagestan said that it was not difficult for militant groups to recruit teenage women in a region with more women than men.

'The girls say, ‘Here is how you will live, and a man will always be beside you,’ the official said. 'There is some romance about a man with a gun, with an automatic weapon. They make the fighters into heroes, naturally. These girls aren’t thinking straight.'

Ms. Abdullayeva apparently met Mr. Magomedov through the Internet.

This happens with increasing frequency, as young women strike up Internet relationships with older men who persuade them to accept fundamentalist Islam and, out of naïveté and romantic impulse, to abandon their families, said Ragimat Adamova, news editor for Novoye Delo, a newspaper in Dagestan.

Ms. Adamova says that once women are brought into the militant structure, they typically never leave. If a woman’s husband is killed, she typically marries a second, third or even a fourth fighter.

3. Female Suicide Bombers
Lindsey O'Rourke/Behind the Woman Behind the Bomb/NYT August 2, 2008 (op ed piece)
There is precious little evidence of uniquely feminine motivations driving women’s suicide attacks.

"... the root cause of suicide terrorism appears to be anger at occupying forces..."
For several informative responses to and comments on Lindsey O'Rourke's essay, including the author's reply, see: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/08/suicide_bombers_f/. 

Anne Speckhard/The Emergence of Female Suicide Terrorists/Studies in Conflict and Terrorism Vol. 31, No. 11, November 2008
Note: This is a permalink directly accessible @ the Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and password are required.  On some browsers, it may be necessary or more convenient to save the article to desktop as pdf with the extension .pdf following the title of the article. 
Abstract:
Female suicide terrorists do not differ significantly from their male counterparts in terms of individual motivations. Although societal oppression may play a minor role in their self-recruitment to terror organizations women do not bomb themselves primarily to drive a feminist cause. Instead they act out of motivations inside conflict zones of trauma, revenge, nationalism, expression of community outrage and in non-conflict zones feelings of alienation, marginalization, negative self-identity, and a desire to act on behalf of those inside conflict zones. Groups find it to their advantage to use female bombers as they receive more media attention, increased sympathy for the terrorist cause, are able to pass security measures more easily than men, and are more dispensable because they are rarely in leadership positions.

Alissa J. Rubin/How Baida Wanted to Die/NYT Sunday Magazine, August 16, 2009
An encounter in Iraq with a (would-be) female suicide bomber.

Return To Beginning Of Syllabus

VII. Islam in the West - Globalization, "Individualization", & Radicalism
1. An Overview

Readings:
Kenan Malik, "The Failure of Multiculturalism", Foreign Affairs, March 2015, Vol. 94 Issue 2, pp21-32 @
http://libproxy.txstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=100961098&site=ehost-live (permalink) A valid Texas State University User Name and password are required.

Robert S. Leiken/Europe's Angry Muslims/Foreign Affairs/July-august 2005
This article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.
This article can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.
Timothy M. Savage, "Europe and Islam: Crescent Waxing, Cultures Clashing", The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2004, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp.25-50.
This article can be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.
Olivier Roy/Born again to kill:Why Islamic terrorism is born in Europe/signandsight.com/August 08 2004
Lorenzo Vidino/Aims and Methods of Europe's Muslim Brotherhood/Hudson Institute-Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, vol. 4 November 1, 2006
Ian Buruma/Tariq Ramadan Has an Identity Issue: Is he an activist scholar or an extremist in scholarly garb?/NYT Sunday Magazine February 04, 2007
For a critical, highly recommended, review of this article by Buruma and much more on Western intellectuals and radical Islam, see:
Paul Berman, "Who's Afraid of Tariq Ramadan?: The Islamist, the journalist, and the defense of liberalism", The New Republic, June 4, 2007, Vol. 236, No. 4, 814.
Berman's essay can be directly accessed here and here.  This essay can also be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required. 

Recommended Films/Videos:
For a Review Essay on Films Related to Islam in the West see:
Alan Riding/On Screen, Tackling Europe's New Reality (Review of Films by and/or about Muslims In Europe-w/links to information on noted films)/NYT/January 18 2005

2. Muslims in France
Readings: Christopher Caldwell, "The Crescent and the Tricolor", The Atlantic Monthly, November 2000.
This article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.
This article can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.
Claire Berlinski, "The Hope of Marseille", Azure Winter 2005, No. 19.
This article can be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to the section labeled "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

Clara Beyer/The Jihadist Threat in France/Hudson Institute-Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, Vol. 3 February 16, 2006
John Rosenthal/The French Path to Jihad: Islamist inmates tell their stories/Policy Review October & November 2006
(Note: Much of the Rosenthal piece is based on the work of Farhad Khosrokhavar.  Farhad Khosrokhavar's book, Suicide Bombers: Allah's New Martyrs [Pluto Press 2005-Translated from the original 2002 French edition], is a recommended book for this course.)
See also: "French Riots Special Feature"/December 6, 2005 @ http://www.signandsight.com/features/500.html. This Special Feature contains links to many articles on Muslims in France.

Recommended Films/Videos:
Hate (French w/English subtitles 1995 [1hr. 35 min.]
An intense, violent film that depicts the life of angry, disaffected minority youth in the suburbs of Paris.  Offers some insight into the perspective of mostly Muslim rioting youth in France, although the three young men on whom this disturbing film focuses are ethnically African, Arab, and Jewish.
For more on this film see: Alan Riding/In France, Artists Have Sounded the Warning Bells for Years NYT November 24, 2005.

Excerpt from Alan Riding essay on the film "Hate":
"So life often imitates art. Yet with the recent uprisings in some French immigrant neighborhoods, this cliché came with a new twist: art in the form of movies and rap music has long been warning that French-born Arab and black youths felt increasingly alienated from French society, that their banlieues were ripe for explosion.

Certainly, anyone who saw Mathieu Kassovitz's film, "La Haine," or "Hate," a decade ago had no reason to be surprised by this fall's violence. At the time, Kassovitz's portrayal of a seething immigrant Paris suburb, even his choice of the word "hate" for his title, seemed shocking, even exaggerated. Today, the movie could almost pass as a documentary.

In "Hate," burning cars light up the soulless space between high-rise public housing projects as local residents protest the beating of a young Arab, Ahmed. Nearby, graffiti proclaim: "Don't forget, the police kill." Three angry and restless youths - a Jew, an Arab and a black - visit Ahmed in the hospital and are themselves beaten by the police. They plan revenge".

Chaos (French w/English subtitles 2001 [1hr. 49 min.]
"Although comedy takes precedence in most parts of the film, it is the social commentary part that will spark the most debate. France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, mostly from its citizens who are from its former colonies in North Africa. Culture clashes are inevitable when a burgeoning and mostly traditional Muslim society slowly assimilates itself within a Western society that lives by much different values. In this film, Serreau tries to address the hot issue of traditional Muslim society’s treatment of women, specifically the issue of fathers “selling” their teenage daughters into marriages with much older men. Melodrama aside, “Chaos” has a serious message to convey to its audience and it does it with force and without fear".
Excerpt from:  http://www.dvdtown.com/review/chaos/11612/1928/

3. Muslims in Britain
Readings:
Christopher Caldwell/Jihadtropolis?: After Londonistan/NYT June 25, 2006
James Brandon/Islam rises among young Britons/The Christian Science Monitor/July 11 2005
Sukhdev Sandhu, "Come hungry, leave edgy", London Review of Books, October 9, 2003, Vol. 25, No. 19. - An informative review essay on the novel Brick Lane by Monica Ali. The essay provides much material on the experiences of immigrants to Britain, including Muslim immigrants.  Sukhev Sandu's review essay can be accessed onine @ http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n19/sand01_.html. This review essay can also be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

Recommended Films/Videos
My Son The Fanatic (British 1997) [1hr. 27 min.]
For more on this film see: June Thomas/The First 7/7 Movie: In the Wake of the London Bombings, a look back at My Son the Fanatic/slate.com/July 18 2005

4. Muslims in Germany
Readings:
Alison Smale, "Germany Adds Lessons in Islam to Better Blend Its Melting Pot", NYT, January 7, 2014
Public schools for the first time are offering classes in Islam to primary school students to better integrate Germany’s large Muslim minority and to try to counter the influence of radical religious thinking.
(boldface added)

Peter Schneider/The New Berlin Wall/NYT Sunday Magazine/December 4 2005
Andrew Curry, "Riot Control: Why There Were No Riots In Germany", The New Republic, TNR Online | Post date 11.16.05
This article can be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.
Mark Landler/German Judge Cites Koran, Stirring Up Cultural Storm/NYT March 23, 2007
Mark Landler/After Lifetime in Germany, Turks Still Alone/NYT March 25, 2007
"Four decades after the first Turks arrived as guest workers, they are reaching retirement in a land that still feels foreign."
Mark Landler and Nicholas Kulish/Arrest of One Turk in Germany Brings New Scrutiny to a Society of 2.7 Million/NYT September 08, 2007
Nicholas Kulish/Turkish Newspapers Vie for Fluency in Two Societies/NYT November 11, 2007
Norbert F. Pötz/Life in a Parallel Society: Muslims in Germany/spiegel.de/international/April 16, 2008

5. Muslims in America
Readings: Spencer Ackerman, "Religious Protection: Why American Muslims Haven't Turned To Terrorism" The New Republic, December 12, 2005.
This article can be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.  

Nina Bernstein/In American Cities, No Mirror Image of Muslims of Leeds/NYT/July 21 2005

For another perspective on the issue of Muslims in America turning to terrorism see: Andrea Elliott/A Call to Jihad, Answered in America/NYT, Sunday, July 12, 2009.
"The case has forced federal agents and terrorism analysts to rethink some of their most basic assumptions about the vulnerability of Muslim immigrants in the United States to the lure of militant Islam. For years, it seemed that “homegrown” terrorism was largely a problem in European countries like Britain and France, where Muslim immigrants had failed to prosper economically or integrate culturally. By contrast, experts believed that the successful assimilation of foreign-born Muslims in the United States had largely immunized them from the appeal of radical ideologies.

The story of the Twin Cities men does not lend itself to facile categorizations. They make up a minuscule percentage of their Somali-American community, and it is unclear whether their transformation reflects any broader trend. Nor are they especially representative of the wider Muslim immigrant population, which has enjoyed a stable and largely middle-class existence."

Neil MacFarquhar/Iraq's Shadow Widens Sunni-Shiite Split in U.S./NYT February 04, 2007

Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet/An Internet Jihad Aims at U.S. Viewers/NYT October 15, 2007

Neil MacFarquhar/For Muslim Students (in U.S.), A Debate on Inclusion (with photos)/NYT February 21, 2008

Neil MacFarquhar/To Muslim girls in U.S., Girl Scouts offer a chance to fit in NYT November 28, 2007

VIII. Islam in Russia: 19th Century Empire, Soviet and Modern Eras

For an informative and insightful analysis of the pre Soviet Russian empire's relations with its large Muslim populations that may offer a comparative perspective on the allegiance of Muslim populations in modern Western states, see the review essay by Orlando Figes, "Islam: The Russian Solution", The New York Review of Books, December 21, 2006, Vol. LIII, No. 20, pp. 74-77.  The review essay is on two books: Robert D. Crews/For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Harvard University Press 2006) and Shireen T. Hunter/Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and Security (M. E. Sharpe 2004).  Sections 1 and 2, pp. 74-76, of this essay  focusing on Robert Crews' book are especially useful.
"For Prophet and Tsar is an original and revelatory book. Clearly written and well researched, it sheds new light on the complex interplay between the imperial state and its Muslim subjects in a way that may illuminate contemporary debates about how to secure the allegiances of Muslim populations in modern Western states. Crews's analysis of the imperial politics of religion presents a cogent and persuasive explanation of the Russian empire's relative stability in its Muslim territories during the long nineteenth century. It is refreshing to see the question posed this way, not with a view to discovering the social forces that undermined the empire in the longer run, but with a view to understanding the sources of the empire's durability. For what strikes one about the Russian empire is not that it collapsed, as all empires do, but rather that it managed to survive so long (and resurrect itself in the Soviet era) in such a vast and backward landmass as Eurasia, where the Russians were themselves no more than a large minority. The first national census of 1897 showed that Russians made up only 44 percent of the empire's population, and that they were one of the slowest-growing ethnic groups. The Muslim population, with its high birth rate, was the fastest-growing ethnic group in the empire".  (boldface added)
Read the first 38 pages of  the Introduction to Robert D. Crews' book here.

This review essay by Orlando Figes can be accessed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to the section on "Readings on Islam" and look for "Figes: Islam:The Russian Solution".  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

See also: Leon Aron, "Jihadi Murat"-  a  review essay on Robert D. Crews/For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Harvard University Press, 2006) and Gordon M. Hahan/Russia's Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), The New Republic, November 5, 2007, Vol. 237, No. 4, 824, pp. 42-49.  This review essay is directly accessible @ this location.  This Leon Aron essay in The New Republic is also accessible @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library with a valid Texas StateUniversity User Name and password.

Return To Beginning Of Syllabus

IX. Defeating Terrorism: Terrorist Organization, Intelligence, Interrogation, & Moral Dimensions
1. Terrorist Organization & Strategy
 Readings:

Brad McCallister, "Al Qaeda & the Innovative Firm: Demythologizing the Network", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, July-August 2004, Vol. 27, Issue 4.
This article by McCallister can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Bruce Hoffman, "The Changing Face of al Qaeda & the Global War on Terrorism", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, November-December 2004, Vol. 27,  Issue 6.
This Hoffman article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Second, in the wake of the global financial crisis, al-Qaeda has stepped up a strategy of economic warfare. "We will bury you," Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev promised Americans 50 years ago. Today, al-Qaeda threatens: "We will bankrupt you." Over the past year, the group has issued statements, videos, audio messages and letters online trumpeting its actions against Western financial systems, even taking credit for the economic crisis. However divorced from reality these claims may be, propaganda doesn't have to be true to be believed, and the assertions resonate with al-Qaeda's target audiences.

Heightened security measures after the Christmas Day plot, coupled with the likely development of ever more sophisticated passenger-screening and intelligence technologies, stand to cost a lot of money, while the war in Afghanistan constitutes a massive drain on American resources. Given the economic instability here and abroad, al-Qaeda seems to think that a strategy of financial attrition will pay outsize dividends.

Third, al-Qaeda is still trying to create divisions within the global alliance arrayed against it by targeting key coalition partners. Terrorist attacks on mass-transit systems in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 were intended to punish Spain and Britain for participating in the war in Iraq and in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, and al-Qaeda continues this approach today. During the past two years, serious terrorist plots orchestrated by al-Qaeda's allies in Pakistan, meant to punish Spain and the Netherlands for participating in the war on terrorism, were thwarted in Barcelona and Amsterdam.
...
Fourth, al-Qaeda is aggressively seeking out, destabilizing and exploiting failed states and other areas of lawlessness. While the United States remains preoccupied with trying to secure yesterday's failed state -- Afghanistan -- al-Qaeda is busy staking out new terrain. The terrorist network sees failing states as providing opportunities to extend its reach, and it conducts local campaigns of subversion to hasten their decline. Over the past year, it has increased its activities in places such as Pakistan, Algeria, the Sahel, Somalia and, in particular, Yemen.

Once al-Qaeda has located or helped create a region of lawlessness, it guides allies and related terrorist groups in that area, boosting their local, regional and -- as the Northwest Airlines plot demonstrated -- international attack capabilities. Although the exact number of al-Qaeda personnel in each of these areas varies, and in some cases may include no more than a few hard-core terrorists, they perform a critical force-multiplying function. Their help to indigenous terrorist groups includes support for attacks -- by providing weapons, training and intelligence -- and, equally critical, assistance in disseminating propaganda, such as by building Web sites and launching online magazines modeled on al-Qaeda's.

Fifth and finally, al-Qaeda is covetously seeking recruits from non-Muslim countries who can be easily deployed for attacks in the West. The group's leaders see people like these -- especially converts to Islam whose appearances and names would not arouse the same scrutiny that persons from Islamic countries might -- as the ultimate fifth column. Citizens of countries that participate in the U.S. visa-waiver program are especially prized because they can move freely between Western countries and blend easily into these societies."

Alan Cullison/Inside Al-Qaeda's Hard Drive/The Atlantic Monthly/September 2004
The complete text of Cullison's article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Eric Schmitt and Tom Shanker/U.S. Adapts Cold-War Idea to Fight Terrorists/NYT March 18, 2008
Recommended Book: Marc Sageman/Understanding Terror Networks (University of Pennsylvania Press 2004)

2. Intelligence, Interrogation/Torture, Drone Warfare, & Moral Dimensions
Readings:
Elshtain, Chapter 4, "Is The War Against Terrorism Just?" [At Reserve Desk Texas State University Library]
Laqueur, Chapters 6, 8 (recommended).
Berman, Chapters VI., VII. 

*Michael V. Hayden, "To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare", NYT Sunday Review (Opinion), February 21, 2016
@ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/opinion/sunday/drone-warfare-precise-effective-imperfect.html.
*(Michael V. Hayden, a retired Air Force four-star general, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006 to 2009.)
From this opinion piece:
"... the United States needs not only to maintain this (drone warfare) capacity, but also to be willing to use it. Radical Islamism thrives in many corners of the world — Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mali, the list goes on — where governments cannot or will not act. In some of these instances, the United States must.
... unmanned aerial vehicles carrying precision weapons and guided by powerful intelligence offer a proportional and discriminating response when response is necessary. Civilians have died, but in my firm opinion, the death toll from terrorist attacks would have been much higher if we had not taken action."

Bruce Hoffman/A Nasty Business (Torture & Intelligence Gathering Against Terrorists-Should We Care?)/The Atlantic Monthly/January 2002
Mark Bowden/The Dark Art Of Interrogation/The Atlantic Monthly/October 2. 2003
"The most effective way to gather intelligence and thwart terrorism can also be a direct route into morally repugnant terrain. A survey of the landscape of persuasion."
The complete texts of the Hoffman & Bowden articles can be accessed @  Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.
Charles Krauthammer/The Truth about Torture/The Weekly Standard/December 5 2005, Vol. 011 Issue 12
Andrew Sullivan, "The Abolition of Torture", The New Republic, December 19, 2005 - A critique of Krauthammer's position on torture.
This article can be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html. Scroll to section on "Terrorism" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.
Edward Rothstein/Reconsidering the Role of the Warrior in our Post-Enlightenment World/NYT August 06, 2007 (revisited)

Benjamin Weiser/How to Keep an Ex-Terrorist Calm and Talking/NYT December 9, 2007
Michael Moss & Souad Mekhennet/Jail Protests by Militants Win Privileges and Visits by Wives/NYT December 31, 2007
Scott Shane/Inside the Interrogation of a 9/11 Mastermind (w/multimedia & photos)/NYT Sunday, June 22, 2008
Katherine Zoepf/Deprogramming Jihadists (w/photo)/NYT Sunday Magazine November 9, 2008
The Saudi government is trying to rehabilitate violent Islamists by addressing their psychological needs. Could therapy be the best sort of counterterrorism?

"Though the exact nature of the role that religious belief plays in the recruitment of jihadists is the subject of much debate among scholars of terrorism, a growing number contend that ideology is far less important than family and group dynamics, psychological and emotional needs. 'We’re finding that they don’t generally join for religious reasons,' John Horgan told me. A political psychologist who directs the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State, Horgan has interviewed dozens of former terrorists. 'Terrorist movements seem to provide a sense of adventure, excitement, vision, purpose, camaraderie,' he went on, 'and involvement with them has an allure that can be difficult to resist. But the ideology is usually something you acquire once you’re involved.'

Other scholars emphatically disagree, stressing the significance of political belief and grievance. But if the Saudi program is succeeding, it may be because it treats jihadists not as religious fanatics or enemies of the state but as alienated young men in need of rehabilitation.  (boldface added)
...
In Saudi Arabia, psychological disorders are often understood as the results of a person finding himself somehow outside the traditional circle of family and community. Most of the counseling that the inmates receive is focused on helping them to develop more healthful family relationships. “We use Western psychiatric techniques together with Islamic techniques,” T. M. Otayan, the center’s staff psychologist, says, referring to the intensive religion classes. A number of the inmates have received diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder, he adds, but he claims serious mental illness among the former jihadists is rare.
...
How and why violent extremists come to leave their organizations are a fairly new focus in academic studies of terrorism. Horgan’s findings — that simple fear and disillusionment can play a major role in an individual’s decision to disengage from his group — seem to be echoed by a recent RAND Corporation report on the demise of terrorist groups, which found that efforts by police and intelligence agents to create intense internal pressure within terrorist groups are more successful at fighting extremism than military actions."

Eric Lipton, Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti/Review of Jet Bomb Plot Shows More Missed Clues (w/links to related materials & graphic for unconnected threads)/NYT January 18, 2010

Films/Videos:  Battle Of Algiers (1967) (Revisited)
Readings Related To This Film:
Jenkins, "The Battle Of Algiers", pp. 72-79; Jenkins, "Terrorism And Politics", pp. 79-83.
[The Jenkins materials cited here are available at the Reserve Desk Texas State University Library]; Hoffman, pp. 57, 60-64.
Alan A. Stone/Reel Terrorism: Reconsidering The Battle Of Algiers/Boston Review/February-March 2003 (Revisited)
Richard Vinen, "Electric Koran" (Use & Ramifications Of Torture In The Algerian War 1954-1962), London Review Of Books, Vol. 23 No. June 2001.
The Vinen article can be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to the section on the "Arab-Israeli Conflict" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

X. The Future of Extremism and Terrorism 

Note On Course & Syllabus Materials: Students may find books, articles, links, websites, and other materials provided in this syllabus useful and of interest. Their listing in this syllabus, including those which are required and recommended, does not necessarily indicate endorsement of or agreement with any views or positions on any issues found in these materials, websites, or on other sites to which they may provide links.

Readings:
Laqueur, Chapters 9, 10, and Conclusion (recommended); Hoffman, Chapter 9.

Bruce Hoffman, "The Challenges of Effective Counterterrorism in the 2020's",  Lawfare,  June 21, 2020
@https://www.lawfareblog.com/challenges-effective-counterterrorism-intelligence-2020s

Bruce Hoffman, "The Changing Landscape of Domestic Terrorism",  Council on Foreign Relations  podcast 31:48 minutes, June 16, 2020
@https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/changing-landscape-domestic-terrorism-bruce-hoffman

Laura E. Adkins and Emily Burack, "A Guide to the hate symbols and signs on display at the US Capitol riots", The Times Of Israel,  January 8, 2021
@ https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-guide-to-the-hate-symbols-and-signs-on-display-at-the-us-capitol-riots/

Vanessa Friedman, "Why Rioters Wear Costumes",  The New York Times,  January 7, 2021

Rick Paulas, "Why Antifa Dresses Like Antifa - A brief history of Antifa fashion", The New York Times, November 29, 2017
This article is accessible in pdf (portable document format) in the Files section of the Texas State University CANVAS site for Political Science 4344/The Politics of Extremism.

Stanley G. Payne, "Antifascism Without Fascism", First Things, January 2021
@ https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/01/antifascism-without-fascism
This article is accessible in pdf (portable document format) in the Files section of the Texas State University CANVAS site for Political Science 4344/The Politics of Extremism.

Michael Kenney aand Colin Clarke, "What Antifa Is, What It Isn't, And Why It Matters",  War On The Rocks,  June 23, 2020
@ https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/what-antifa-is-what-it-isnt-and-why-it-matters/

Seth G. Jones, "Who Are Antifa, and Are They a Threat?",  Center For Strategic & International Studies, June 4, 2020
@ https://www.csis.org/analysis/who-are-antifa-and-are-they-threat

Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware, "Are We Entering A New Era of Far-Right Terrorism?",  War On The Rocks,  November 27, 2019
@ https://warontherocks.com/2019/11/are-we-entering-a-new-era-of-far-right-terrorism/

Katrin Bennhold, "QAnon Is Thriving in Germany. The Extreme Right Is Delighted", The New York Times October 11, 2020
@ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/11/world/europe/qanon-is-thriving-in-germany-the-extreme-right-is-delighted.html?referringSource=articleShare

Owen Bennet Jones, "Bunches of Guys", London Review of Books, Vol. 35, No. 24, 19 December 2013 @ http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n24/owen-bennett-jones/bunches-of-guys
A review essay on Decoding al-Qaida’s Strategy: The Deep Battle against America by Michael Ryan(Columbia, 368 pp, September 2013) and The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organisations by Jacob Shapiro (Princeton, 352 pp, July 2013).

Excerpts from this review essay by Owen Bennet Jones:
"There has also been a long debate about hierarchy and the extent to which al-Qaida should be a hierarchical organisation. Many Western writers have tried to describe al-Qaida’s structure. The central leadership is often likened to the board of a multinational company overseeing local franchises. The franchisees have to stick to at least some al-Qaida policies and in return can use the brand name. In another parallel from the business world, al-Qaida is said to have affiliates rather than fully-owned and controlled subsidiaries.
...
The phenomenon of excess violence is structural. Many of the junior ranks of terrorist organisations are so highly motivated that they want to use more violence than the leadership thinks wise. And there is another inherent problem. Some volunteers sign up not as a result of genuine political commitment but rather for the sense of empowerment that comes with carrying out violent missions. Zealous recruits of this kind have a tendency to filch the organisation’s funds."

Chapter One (pdf) of How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns by Audrey Kurth Cronin (Princeton 2009).
Audrey Kurth Cronin/How al-Qaida Ends: The Decline and Demise of Terrorist Groups/International Security Summer 2006, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 7-48.
Abstract:
Al-Qaida will end. The fear that a small terrorist organization with a loose network has transformed itself into a protracted global ideological struggle without an end in sight is misguided. There are centuries of experience with modern terrorist movements, many bearing important parallels with al-Qaida; yet the lessons arising from the demise of these groups are little studied. Unfortunately, terrorist organizations in their final stages are often at their most dangerous. The outcomes can range from implosion of a group and its cause to transition to astonishing acts of violence and interstate war. Comparing al-Qaida's differences and similarities with those of earlier terrorist organizations, and applying relevant lessons to this case, can provide insights into al-Qaida's likely demise. It can also inform thinking about how to manage and hasten al-Qaida's end.
Note: Older browsers may not work for access to periodicals at the Texas State University Library. New or recent browsers are best. On some browsers, it may be necessary or more convenient to save the article to desktop as pdf with the extension .pdf following the title of the article.  A valid Texas State University User Name and password are required.

PETER BERGEN AND BRUCE HOFFMAN , "ASSESSING THE TERRORIST THREAT: A REPORT OF THE BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER’S NATIONAL SECURITY PREPAREDNESS GROUP",  SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 @ http://www.ict.org.il/SearchResults/tabid/37/Default.aspx?Search=PETER+BERGEN+AND+BRUCE+HOFFMAN
Summary:
Al-Qaeda and allied groups continue to pose a threat to the United States. Although it is less severe than the catastrophic proportions of a 9/11-like attack, the threat today is more complex and more diverse than at any time over the past nine years. Al-Qaeda or its allies continue to have the capacity to kill dozens, or even hundreds, of Americans in a single attack. A key shift in the past couple of years is the increasingly prominent role in planning and operations that U.S. citizens and residents have played in the leadership of al-Qaeda and aligned groups, and the higher numbers of Americans attaching themselves to these groups. Another development is the increasing diversification of the types of U.S.-based jihadist militants, and the groups with which those militants have affiliated. Indeed, these jihadists do not fit any particular ethnic, economic, educational, or social profile.

Al-Qaeda’s ideological influence on other jihadist groups is on the rise in South Asia and has continued to extend into countries like Yemen and Somalia; al-Qaeda’s top leaders are still at large, and American overreactions to even unsuccessful terrorist attacks arguably have played, however inadvertently, into the hands of the jihadists. Working against al-Qaeda and allied groups are the ramped-up campaign of drone attacks in Pakistan, increasingly negative Pakistani attitudes and actions against the militants based on their territory, which are mirrored by increasingly hostile attitudes toward al-Qaeda and allied groups in the Muslim world in general, and the fact that erstwhile militant allies have now also turned against al-Qaeda.

This report is based on interviews with a wide range of senior U.S. counterterrorism officials at both the federal and local levels, and embracing the policy, intelligence, and law enforcement communities, supplemented by the authors’ own research.

Scott Shane/Rethinking Which Terror Groups to Fear/NYT Week In Review Sunday, September 27, 2009
The terrorism news is mixed: Charges of fresh plots amid signs that Al Qaeda’s appeal is on the slide among Muslims.

Thomas Rid, Marc Hecker/The Terror Fringe: The deterritorialized tail of jihad/Policy Review December 2009 & January 2010
"The afghan-pakistan border region is widely identified as a haven for jihadi extremists. But the joint between local insurgencies and global terrorism has been dislocated. A combination of new technologies and new ideologies has changed the role of popular support: In local insurgencies the population may still be the “terrain” on which resistance is thriving — and counterinsurgency, by creating security for the people, may still succeed locally. But Islamic violent extremism in its global and ambitious form is attractive only for groups at the outer edge, the flat end of a popular support curve. Jihad failed to muster mass support, but it is stable at the margin of society. Neither the West nor its enemies can win — or lose — a war on terror. "
 
Jessica Stern/The Protean Enemy (al Qaeda)/Foreign Affairs/July-August 2003 [This link provides access to a preview of the article.]
The entire Stern article can be viewed @ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.  Scroll to section on "Readings on Islam" and look for the author and title of this article.  This location is password protected.  Password and user name for access will be provided to students in the course.

BruceHoffman, "Al-Qaeda,Trends In Terrorism & Future Potentialities:An Assesssment" Studies In Conflict & Terrrorism, Vol. 26:429-442 November 2003.
The Stern and Hoffman articles can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required. 
This Hoffman article can also be accessed @ BruceHoffman/AlQaeda,TrendsInTerrorismAndFuturePotentialities:AnAssesssment/rand.org/publications/P/P8078/P8078.pdf.

James Fallows, "Declaring Victory: A New Stategy For The Fight Against Terror", The Atlantic Monthly, September 2006.
This article can be accessed @ Locating Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.  A valid Texas State University User Name and Password are required.

Mark Landler & John Markoff/Digital Fears Emerge After Data Siege in Estonia/NYT May 29, 2007
"... what some here describe as the first war in cyberspace (boldface added), a monthlong campaign that has forced Estonian authorities to defend their pint-size Baltic nation from a data flood ...  The bulk of the cyberassaults used a technique known as a distributed denial-of-service attack. By bombarding the country’s Web sites with data, attackers can clog not only the country’s servers, but also its routers and switches, the specialized devices that direct traffic on the network.  ...  To magnify the assault, the hackers infiltrated computers around the world with software known as bots, and banded them together in networks to perform these incursions. The computers become unwitting foot soldiers, or zombies, in a cyberattack.  ...   In one case, the attackers sent a single huge burst of data to measure the capacity of the network. Then, hours later, data from multiple sources flowed into the system, rapidly reaching the upper limit of the routers and switches.  ...  Because of the murkiness of the Internet — where attackers can mask their identities by using the Internet addresses of others, or remotely program distant computers to send data without their owners even knowing it — several experts said that the attackers would probably never be caught. American government officials said that the nature of the attacks suggested they were initiated by “hacktivists,” technical experts who act independently from governments. ...   Mr. Evron, an executive at an Internet security firm called Beyond Security, is a veteran of this kind of warfare. He set up the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT, in Israel. Web sites in Israel are regularly subjected to attacks by Palestinians or others sympathetic to their cause.  ...  'Whenever there is political tension, there is a cyber aftermath,' Mr. Evron said, noting that sites in Denmark became targets after a newspaper there published satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad".

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Academic Honesty Statement Texas State University
Learning and teaching take place best in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and openness. All members of the academic community are responsible for supporting freedom and openness through rigorous personal standards of honesty and fairness. Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty undermine the very purpose of the university and diminish the value of an education.

Academic Offenses
Students who have committed academic dishonesty, which includes cheating on an examination or other academic work to be submitted, plagiarism, collusion, or abuse of resource materials, are subject to disciplinary action.
a. Academic work means the preparation of an essay, thesis, report, problem assignments, or other projects which are to be submitted for purposes of grade determination.
b. Cheating means:
1. Copying from another student’s test paper, laboratory report, other report or computer files, data listing, and/or programs.
2. Using materials during a test unauthorized by person giving test.
3. Collaborating, without authorization, with another person during an examination or in preparing academic work.
4. Knowingly, and without authorization, using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, soliciting, copying, or possessing, in whole or part, the content of an unaministered test.
5. Substituting for another student—or permitting another person to substitute for oneself in taking an exam or preparing academic work.
6. Bribing another person to obtain an unadministered test or information about an unadministered test.
c. Plagiarism means the appropriation of another’s work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one’s own written work offered for credit. (Underline Added)
d. Collusion means the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing written work offered for credit.
e. Abuse of resource materials means the mutilation, destruction, concealment, theft or alteration of materials provided to assist students in the mastery of course materials.
Penalties for Academic Dishonesty
Students who have committeed academic dishonesty may be subject to:
a. Academic penalty including one or more of the following when not inconsistent:
1. A requirement to perform additional academic work not required of other students in the course;
2. Required to withdraw from the course with a grade of “F.”   (Underline Added)
3. A reduction to any level grade in the course, or on the exam or other academic work affected by the academic dishonesty.
b. Disciplinary penalty including any penalty which may be imposed in a student disciplinary hearing pursuant to this Code of Conduct. ****************************************************************************************************

Civility in the classroom is very important for the educational process and it is everyone’s responsibility. If you have questions about appropriate behavior in a particular class, please address them with your instructor first. Disciplinary procedures may be implemented for refusing to follow.

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B.A. in POLITICAL SCIENCE - LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1.    Students will demonstrate the ability to ask relevant questions pertaining to Political Science.
2.    Students will demonstrate the ability to recognize and evaluate assumptions and implications.
3.    Students will demonstrate the ability to examine and evaluate different sides of an issue.
4.    Students will demonstrate the ability to state and defend a thesis that is clear, direct, logical, and substantive in the area of Political Science.
5.    Students will demonstrate the ability to find and use a variety of appropriately cited sources.
6.    Students will demonstrate substantive knowledge of concepts and facts relevant to Political Science.

For students in Public Administration:
BPA – PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1.    Students will demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving skills.
2.    Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively in writing.
3.    Students will demonstrate effective oral communication skills.
4.    Students will demonstrate a fundamental understanding of key public administration and management concepts related to their internship experience or applied research project.
5.    Students will demonstrate an understanding of ethical issues in public administration.
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