This course Investigates the phenomenon of terrorism globally with particular emphasis on why terrorism occurs and on domestic and international counterterrorism.
During this course one of the most significant assignments was to research a terrorist organization. Myself and my partner did our research on the Afghan Taliban. Our research insisted of finding the origin of the terrorist organization, why they developed their ideology, platforms they used to gain recruits and strategies the organization used to gain financial support and territory. We then had to come up with recommendations for how the US could further fight to undermine the ideology and authority of the terrorist organization.
This course was so interesting to me because it wasn't about terrorists being bad people. The goal of the course was to identify why terrorist organizations arise and how their ideology is built.
This course helped me look at my own biases on what a terrorist is and why they do what they do. It is easy to look at the actions of these people and think they are purely evil but we learned that for many of these organizations it was a last resort to get people to listen and pay attention to the causes they believe they are fighting for. Many of these people feel like they have been robbed of something and believe this is an effective way of gaining whatever liberation they feel they deserve.
The course also helped me see that there are many avenues that can be taken in regards to eradicating terrorism and the ethical perspectives behind these avenues. One thing my partner and I had to evaluate was the ethics of drone strikes. Although they are an effective way of taking out terrorist leaders, there is collateral damage. Sometimes whole buildings are wiped out and citizens are left in constant fear of their lives. If I was asked if I thought drone strikes were ethical before taking this course I would have said yes. This course had opened my eyes to the fact that drone strikes not only leave victims in fear, but they also encroach on the sovereignty of the nation. I would never want another country to encroach on US sovereignty but I needed to hear other perspectives to realize this.
We then had to take these viewpoints as well as analyze our own biases in order to come up with the most effective and efficient policy recommendations. Please click below to view our policy recommendations.