Course Level: Undergraduate/Graduate

Topics in Terrorism (3)

Conventional & Unconventional Security Challenges South Asia

Since Partition, both India and Pakistan have been forced to confront myriad security challenges, including the threat that a conventional conflict between them could escalate into a nuclear war. Both countries have also been victimized by terrorist violence and today Pakistan is considered the epicenter for terrorism, while the wider South Asian region remains home to numerous insurgencies. Meanwhile, the populations in India and Pakistan face a host of human security threats in the form of crime and corruption, exacerbated by the presence of one of the world's largest organized criminal networks. This course examines conventional, unconventional, and human security issues from a comparative perspective in India and Pakistan. It explores the ways in which security competition between these two countries has exacerbated security challenges, particularly terrorism, as well as assessing them from an endogenous perspective.

Course Level: Undergraduate/Graduate

Topics in Terrorism (3)

Evolution of Global Jihad

This course examines the contours of the Sunni jihadist movement. A heavy emphasis is placed on exploring the ideological and strategic debates within the movement as well as national, regional, and international events that contribute to these debates. Although the course makes significant use of the theoretical literature available in the emerging field of jihadist studies, it also introduces students to journalistic accounts and policy debates as well as statements and literature produced by jihadists themselves. The course is in three blocks: the first examines the historical events and ideological innovations that contributed to the contours of the jihadist movement as it exists today, the crucial role played by the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s and the debates that developed within the jihadist movement during the 1990s. The second block focuses on al-Qaeda, its evolution after 9/11 and its use of information operations as well as on theories of jihadist warfare and strategies to counter al-Qaeda. The third block is dedicated to exploring jihadist movements in various regions around the world, including the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and South Asia, as well as to radicalization and jihadist terrorism in the West