Admission requirements
Mandatory course for students enrolled in the bachelor’s programme Security Studies.
Only students enrolled into the bachelor’s programme Security Studies can follow this course. This course is also open for inbound exchange students. Exchange students must be admitted by the FGGA International Office prior to the start of the course.
Description
The threat of terrorism remains a priority on political agendas worldwide. Yet, for all the attention that this phenomenon has gained, many aspects of terrorism and counterterrorism remain poorly understood. This course has two main objectives. First of all, it aims to provide students with a thorough introduction to the most pertinent aspects of 20th and 21st century terrorism and counterterrorism. Reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of the field, students will acquire an understanding of key issues ranging from a historical overview of modern terrorism to the macro, meso and micro-level causes of involvement in this form of political violence. Secondly, the course will familiarise students with the various opportunities and obstacles for conducting interdisciplinary research on these subjects. The overall goal is to enable students to critically assess and participate in ongoing debates on terrorism and counterterrorism from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives.
The course begins by providing an overview of what terrorism is, focusing on the subjectivity at the heart of many interpretations of the concept and attempting to gain clarity through comparisons with others forms of political violence. This conceptual discussion is complemented with a detailed look at terrorism’s recent historical development. Building on this basis, each subsequent week of the course will focus on a particular aspect of terrorism and counterterrorism. The course progressively introduces a broader array of topics and deepens students’ understanding of both the issues at stake and recurring concerns related to the production and interpretation of knowledge on those subjects.
Throughout the course, active student participation is expected in order to engage in critical reflection on the subjects being discussed.
Course objectives
After this course students are able to:
Acquire knowledge and an all-round understanding of current manifestations of (international) terrorism and counterterrorism;
Acquire knowledge and understanding of several basic concepts and/or methods in: * International Relations & Political Science * Sociology and Psychology * Law and Criminology * Communication and media * Public Policy and Governance
Critically assess and reflect on current terrorism-related phenomena;
Analyse the specific methodological, theoretical and conceptual challenges in researching terrorism and counterterrorism;
Understand the state-of-the-art of contemporary research on (counter)terrorism;
Write an academic paper analyzing contemporary terrorism from a conceptual, theoretical or case-study based approach (Skills: research, analyzing, written communication);
Present research-based findings to an audience of peers (Skill: presenting);
Engage in independent study to draw key insights from academic texts related to terrorism and political violkence (Skill: independent learning).
Timetable
On the right side of the programme front page you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Brightspace.
Mode of instruction
14 plenary lectures
4 course labs in smaller groups
Attendance of the course labs is mandatory. If you miss more than 1 course lab you fail the course and won’t obtain a final grade.
Total study load of 280 hours:
Contact hours: 54
Self-study hours: 223
Examination: 3
Assessment method
Individual presentation
15% of final grade
Grade must be compensated
Resit not possible.
Written paper
40% of final grade
Grade must be 5.50 or higher
Resit of a fail is possible.
Resit will take the same form
Final exam with mc questions
45% of final grade
Grade must be 5.50 or higher
Resit of a fail is possible.
Resit will take the same form
Students will also be permitted to resit the written paper (40%) and/or the final exam (45%) if they have a calculated overall course grade lower than 5.50. This only applies when both the written paper and the final exam are passed with sufficient partial grades.
Transitional arrangements
Passed partial grades obtained in year 2023-2024 remain valid during year 2024-2025. Students who did not meet the course lab attendance requirements in 2023-2024 are required to attend the course labs in 2024-2025.
In the case of written assessment methods, the examiner can always initiate a follow-up conversation with the student to establish whether the learning objectives have been met.
Reading list
A selection of books and articles will be announced via Brightspace.
Registration
Register yourself via MyStudymap for each course, workgroup and exam (not all courses have workgroups and/or exams).
Do so on time, before the start of the course; some courses and workgroups have limited spaces. You can view your personal schedule in MyTimetable after logging in.
Registration for this course is possible from TBA
Leiden University uses Brightspace as its online learning management system. After enrolment for the course in MyStudymap you will be automatically enrolled in the Brightspace environment of this course. Furthermore, announcements and modifications will be communicated via Brightspace. Students have the responsibility to stay informed and are thus advised to regularly check Brightspace for updates.
More information on registration via MyStudymap can be found on this page.
Please note: guest-/contract-/exchange students do not register via MyStudymap but via uSis.
Contact
Remarks
For exceptions, please contact the Board of Examiners.