GOV 253 The Politics of Terrorism
Fall Semester 2009
2:40-4:10 MW
office hours (45D Main Hall, 3rd floor):
MW 11:15-12:15; TTh 1-2; by appointment.
Email: sgsnow at wagner
AIM: sgsnow at mac
Phone: 718-390-3351 (rarely checked)
Fax: 718-420-4158
“Show me not the end without the way. For ends and means on earth are so entangled, That changing one, you change the other too; Each different path brings different aims in view.” –Ferdinand Lassalle, “Franz von Sickingen” (1859).
“We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we’re going to be successful. That’s the world these folks operate in, and so it’s going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.”
–Vice President Dick Cheney on “Meet the Press,” Sept. 16, 2001
I’ve tried to speak as clearly as I possibly can. You’re either with us or you’re not with us. You’re either with us or you’re against us.
–President Bush, April 9, 2002
This course examines differing definitions and types of terrorism, historical and contemporary terrorist movements, approaches to counter-terrorism, and several case studies. We conclude by considering whether the effort to fight terrorism might do more damage to the targeted nation than the attacks themselves.
Make-up policy and late papers: It’s a simple policy. Late papers and other assignments will receive zero credit. If you don’t show up for an exam or a quiz, you don’t get a makeup. (Remember: printers will break down, disks will become corrupted–anticipate these problems by backing up your work and not waiting until the last minute to compose and print out your assignments.) Exceptions to this rule will be both extremely rare and entirely at my discretion. For example, a grandparent’s death would not be grounds for an exception, nor would ordinary illnesses.
Papers and other assignments cannot be submitted via email.
You must take the final exam to receive a passing grade for the class.
Academic Honesty: I will report any suspicious papers or exams, and/or my suspicions of academic dishonesty in any form to the Academic Honesty Committee.
Grades will be calculated as follows: the exams are worth 100 points; the paper is worth 100 points; the final exam is worth 150 points. For the final grade, I will make the highest score the highest A, and move down in increments of 10%. For example, if the highest score for the course is 330, the A range will be approximately from 330 to 297 (330-33); the B range will be approximately from 296 to 263 (296-33), etc. I reserve the right, of course, to adjust the final grading scale as I see fit.
The Texts: There are no texts required for purchase. All the readings are available electronically. In addition, I will likely assign short articles from the daily and weekly press, which I will provide you in class and for which you will be, of course, responsible on the exams and quizzes.
The Schedule: The following schedule outlines the assignments and lecture topics for each class. This schedule may vary somewhat throughout the quarter. If this happens, I will inform you. You are responsible for any announcements I make in class or online.
Perspectives and definitions
Week 1 Aug. 31
Ash, “Is There a Good Terrorist?”, New York Review of Books, Volume 48, Number 19 · November 29, 2001.
Week 2 Sept. 9 (no class Monday)
Furstenburg, “Bush’s Dangerous Liaisons“, International Herald Tribune, October 28, 2007.
Mueller, “Is There Still a Terrorist Threat“, Foreign Affairs , September/October 2006
Questions:
1. What are the possible reasons why there have been no terrorist attacks on the US since 9/11? Are they convincing? What is Mueller’s favored explanation?
2. I saw a bumper-sticker yesterday (5 Sept. 2009) on the LIE, with a picture of Osama Bin Laden on it. It said: “Vote Democrat! Vote for the Terrorists!” How is that bumper-sticker related to the French Revolution?
3. Why is context so important in trying to determine whether someone should be defined as a “terrorist”? Why does it matter in what country the “terrorist” act occurs?
Types
Week 3 Sept. 14
Martha Crenshaw Hutchinson, The Concept of Revolutionary Terrorism, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 16, No. 3. (Sep., 1972), pp. 383-396.
Paul Wilkinson, Wilkinson, “Can a State be a ‘Terrorist’?”, International Affairs, Vol. 57, No. 3. (Summer, 1981), pp. 467-472.
Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God, excerpt.
Byman, “The Logic of Ethnic Terrorism,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, vol.21, No.2, (April-June 1998).
Recommended: Franchetti, “Dirty war rages on Russia’s doorstep“, Times, 20 Sept. 2009.
Questions:
1. Why is ethnic terrorism so difficult to stop?
2. Why is context so important in trying to determine whether someone should be defined as a “terrorist”? Why does it matter in what country the “terrorist” act occurs? How does this relate to Wilkinson’s argument that the IRA cannot be seen in the same light as the FLN in Algeria?
Tactics, Weapons, Success?
Week 4 Sept. 21
Marighella, “Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla”
Preston, “The Demon in the Freezer”,” The New Yorker, July 12, 1999, pp. 44-61.
Max Abrams, Why Terrorism Does Not Work, International Security, 2006.
Week 5 Sept. 28
Mansdorf, The Psychological Framework of Suicide Terrorism, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, April 2003.
“Special Report on Suicide Terrorism” The Economist, November 01, 2004.
Pape, “The Logic of Suicide Terrorism”, The American Conservative, July 18, 2005.
Waldman, “Masters of Suicide Bombing: Tamil Guerrillas of Sri Lanka,” New York Times, January 14, 2003.
Counter-terrorism
Week 6 Oct. 5th
Helena K. Finn, The Case for Cultural Diplomacy: Engaging Foreign Audiences, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003
Schoenberger, “Security Blanket“, Forbes, 14 April 2003
Daniel Byman, “Do Targeted Killings Work?”, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006.
Catherine Lotrionte, “When to Target Leaders,” The Washington Quarterly, (Summer 2003), pp. 73-86.
“Showstoppers: Nine reasons why we never sent our Special Operations Forces after al Qaeda before 9/11“, Richard H. Schultz, Weekly Standard, 26 January 2004.
Page, Guerrilla tactics – how the Tamil Tigers were beaten in an ‘unwinnable’ war, London Times
Questions: 1) How does the United States face a different set of circumstances than does Israel regarding “targeted killings”, and why is this important? 2) In what sense do attacks on civilians have “high correspondence”, and how does this affect the likelihood of the terrorists achieving their objectives?
Week 7 Oct. 14th (no class Monday)
Mid-term Exam
Case Studies
Week 8 Oct. 19
One Hundred Years Ago: Anarchism
Sergey Nechaev, “Catechism of the Revolutionist,” [1869].
Pyotr Kropotkin, “The Spirit of the Revolt,” [1880].
John William Ward, “Violence, Anarchy, and Alexander Berkman” New York Review of Books, Volume 15, Number 8 · November 5, 1970.
‘Propaganda by Deed‘, Workers Solidarity, No 55 October 1998.
“For Jihadist, read Anarchist” The Economist, 15 August 2005
Week 9 Oct. 26
Algeria: Prototypical urban terrorism and counter-terrorism
Alistair Horne, “Savage War of Peace, Ch. 9.”
Paul Aussaresses, “The Battle of the Casbah, Ch. 14″, in Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, pp. 124-131.
Daley, “France Is Seeking a Fine in Trial of Algerian War General,” The New York Times, November 29, 2001
Torture in Algeria: “Past Acts that Haunt France”, Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison. Le Monde diplomatique, June 2001
Week 10 Nov. 2nd
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Meyer, Karl. “Who’s a Terrorist, and When?” New York Times, May 2, 1988.
Jason Vest, “Oy McVey: From the Irv Rubin Bust to the Stern Gang: The Rich History of Jewish Terrorism“, Village Voice, December 19 – 25, 2001.
“Celebrating terror, Israeli-style“, Hasan Suroor, The Hindu.
Glenn Frankel, “Prison Tactics a Longtime Dilemma for Israel,” Washington Post, June 16, 2004.
Jon E. Dougherty, “Arafat’s Trail of Terror”, NewsMax, Nov. 11, 2004.
Lisa Beyer, The Myths and Reality of Munich, Time, Dec. 04, 2005
Eyad Sarraj, “Why We Have Become Suicide Bombers“, CIE, August 1997.
Week 11 Nov. 9
Al Queda
Wright, Lawrence, “The Man Behind Bin Laden.” The New Yorker, Sept. 16, 2002.
Raban, Jonathan, “My Holy War.” The New Yorker, Feb. 4, 2002.
“Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders,” World Islamic Front Statement, Feb. 23, 1998.
The United States and Counter Terrorism
Week 12 Nov. 16
Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib
Mark Bowden, The Dark Art of Interrogation, Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 2003.
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, pp. 44-55 (New York, NY: Perennial, 2002).
Mark Danner, “Torture and Truth,” New York Review of Books, June 10, 2004.
“The House of Pain”, The Daily Show.
Charles Krauthammer, “The Truth About Torture,” Weekly Standard, 12/5/05.
Week 13 Nov. 23 (no class Nov. 25)
Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib (con’td)
Glenn Greenwald, Senate report links Bush to detainee homicides; media yawns
Seymour M. Hersh, “Torture at Abu Ghraib. American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?” The New Yorker, May 10, 2004.
Mark Danner, The Logic of Torture, New York Review of Books, June 24, 2004.
Interview with Ronald Kessler, The Daily Show, March 11, 2008.
Interview with Cliff May, The Daily Show, April 28, 2009.
Week 14 Nov. 30
The United States: Waterboarding and Rendition
Mayer, Outsourcing Torture, New Yorker, 2/14/2005.
Andrew Sullivan, “Verschärfte Vernehmung,” The Atlantic, 14 June 2007.
Andrew Sullivan, “How The Nazis Defended ‘Enhanced Interrogation‘”, The Atlantic, 14 June 2007.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, From Captive to Suicide Bomber
Alfred W. McCoy, “The Myth of the Ticking Time Bomb”, The American Prospect, October 2006.
Christopher Hitchens, “Believe Me, It’s Torture“
Week 15 Dec. 7th
“What Did Seymour Hersh Say About Assassinations?“, The New Yorker, July 21, 2009
