Research Paper

HSEP 301/POLI 367/CRJS 367: Terrorism

Fall 2009

Newmann

 

Due Dates are all listed on the syllabus

You will be writing a 1-2 page executive summary on an assigned issue related to a terrorist group.  You will be required to hand in a rough draft (at a date indicated on the syllabus) and a final paper (at a date indicated on the syllabus).  The rough draft is intended to give me an opportunity to help you out with the style of an executive summary and give you an opportunity to rewrite the executive summary based on my comments.

 

The paper will be a group project, sort of.  Each group of five students (possible six) will choose a terrorist organization to analyze. I will help assign the terrorist organizations to be studied from an approved list (see below) the first three weeks of the class.  The group will use a division of labor in which each individual student is responsible for examining one aspect/issue of the terrorist organization (see below). All the aspects/issues taken together will provide a comprehensive picture of the terrorist organization.

 

Each student will write an executive summary paper of one to two pages in length on his or her designated issue; again that issue will be one aspect of a specific terrorist organization.  That paper is designed to be an overall big-picture assessment by each student of the specific issue they have chosen.  In the list below, in parentheses, are the questions that each student should try to answer in his/her assessment. The paper will include:

  • One to two page executive summary (11 point font and one inch margins)
  • Endnotes (at least 10 citations)
  • Bibliography (at least ten sources)

The executive summary must be one to two pages only; the bibliography and end notes can be more than one page.  The bibliography and end notes do not count as part of the 1-2 pages of the executive summary.

 

Why an executive summary: As you graduate you will take a job, maybe in the government, maybe in the private sector.  Either way, you will probably not be the CEO.  You will be working for someone else and your job will probably be based on your ability to help your boss do a good job.  There will be two key elements to that: information and communication.  Your ability to provide your boss with high quality and high reliability information will be one key challenge.  Your ability to communicate that information to your boss in an easy to digest form will be the other key.  Think of it this way: Assume that I am the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.  I have to report to the Undersecretary of Defense for Political Affairs on terrorist groups around the world.  I can’t read a book on every terrorist group out there.  Also, I have eight zillion other responsibilities.  I can devote about five minutes to each terrorist group, so I need for you (my chief deputy) to give me the information I need in a very short report that will tell me everything I need to know about the terrorist group in under five minutes.  That’s the life of a busy public or private sector executive.  You, as the deputy, have to provide your boss with what he/she needs: one to two pages that tells him/her what he/she needs to know.  You’re the expert and you need to provide that expertise in a format that is succinct, clear, and informative.  This means that for your paper, you will:

  • Research as if you’re writing an 8-10 age semester research paper.  This is important.  You actually must do the research that you would do for a full research paper or else your executive summary will not have the depth that it needs.
  • Gather enough source material to write an 8-10 page research paper. This is important.  You actually must do the research that you would do for a full research paper or else your executive summary will not have the depth that it needs
  • Only write a one to two page summary of that hypothetical 8-10 page research paper
  • Use citations in that executive summary that provide the reader with the ability to read more about every important issue mentioned in the paper because you cite the source of that information (your endnotes)
  • Compile a bibliography for the paper, so that the reader knows what sources you used.

 

 

The Elements of an Executive Summary

There are many ways to think about an executive summary, but here is what I think is the best way. How you break this down into paragraphs is up to you, but suggestions are made below.

  • Section One: What is the question?  What is the answer to that question?  What is/are the one or two most important aspects of the answer to question.  (one paragraph)
  • Section Two: What are the two or three key issues?  What are your conclusions about those issues? (two to three paragraphs)
  • Section Three: What are your overall conclusions regarding the issue?  What are the uncertainties? What are the keys to the future development/evolution of the issue? (one or two paragraphs)

 

The following are links to examples from rand Corporation documents.  These are on line executive summaries of larger documents, which are also on line.  If you go to Rand’s main web site (www.rand.org) and look under publications, you will find summaries of almost all their documents included with the documents themselves.  Rand is funded mostly by the US government, so most of what they publish is available on line to the good taxpayers of the US. Most of these summaries are longer than yours has to be, but the papers they are summarizing are also loner than your hypothetical paper.  These links will take you to the document where you can click in the full document or the summary.

  • Jennifer D. P. Moroney and Joe Hogler, with Benjamin Bahney, Kim Cragin, David R. Howell, Charlotte Lynch, S. Rebecca Zimmerman, Building Partner Capacity to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2009), Available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG783/

 

·        Brian A. Jackson, David R. Frelinger, Emerging Threats and Security Planning: How Should We Decide What Hypothetical Threats to Worry About? (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2009), Available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP256/

 

 

 

 

Here are examples of one to two page executive summaries for the terrorist/insurgent group al-Shabaab.  The summaries are annotated so you can see what U was trying to achieve in each paragraph, even in some sentences.  If you have trouble reading the comments, you may need to play around with the settings of your toolbars to reveal the icons for comments.  You’ll also notice that the bibliography is in a different file than the text.  That is not required of you, but it was simpler to do it that way.  Please notice endnote and bibliographic format.  You may use that style as a template for you paper if you like.  You can use any established style (MLA, etc…)

 

 

 

The Issues

For each terrorist organization examined, the assigned issues are listed below.  I will give brief examples of what I mean using al-Qaeda, an organization we will discuss at length in class, but that will not be one of the terrorist groups that the research papers will focus upon.  Each member of the group assigned to research a specific terrorist organization will focus on one of these issues (1-5) unless I indicate that number 6 is also a choice.  You will be making the choice of issue yourself and then submitting to me, as a group, the issue assignments.

 

Issue One

Origins, objectives, and doctrines of the organization: Describe the creation of the organization, its reason for being and its political goals.  What doctrines does it use to guide its belief systems and activities?

 (Are these goals realistic given the politics of the situation? Are these goals negotiable as part of a settlement that will end political violence and lead to a partial achievement of these goals?) 

For al-Qaeda (AQ), the origins date back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when militants from all over the Middle East and Asia came to Afghanistan to fight the “infidel” invaders.  The organization flourished again after the Gulf War in opposition to US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia.  The goals are diverse: removal of US troops from the Middle East, destruction of Israel, removal of authoritarian rulers in the Middle East and democratic rulers in Southeast Asia, replacement of those rulers with AQ approved leaders.  The doctrines are a mixture of radical Islamic ideas (indeed in many ways very un-Islamic) and Arab nationalism.

(The goals don’t sound very realistic, or very negotiable.  AQ may achieve them, however, by sowing general chaos in these regions, a chaos that could lead to the rise of demagogues that might move in the most radical direction.  Remember, how economic and political turmoil in Germany, Italy, and Japan between WW I and WW II led to the victory of fascists in all three countries.)

 

 

Issue Two

Leadership and leadership structure: Who leads this organization and by what means? Is this leadership stable or in flux?  Are there rivalries within the leadership? Is it hierarchical or network-based?

(Is this leadership structured well or is it chaotic to the point where it inhibits the organizations ability to act? Are the organizations too dependent on single individuals or has the institutional structure been developed enough to survive the capture or death of the senior leaders?)

            For AQ the picture is mixed.  It has a strong leadership (Osama bin-Laden) and it has survived the capture of its number three man -- Khalid Sheikh Muhammed. However, it is also network-based with a series of loosely connected cells, alliances with other groups, and even entrepreneurial groups that it funds, but may not direct. 

(The leadership seems to be in a state of flux since it was pushed out of Afghanistan, but it seems to have enough organizational staying power to continue to operate although in a weakened state, it is believed.  New people are promoted up the command structure and the entrepreneurial nature of AQ operations makes central command less important in any case.)

 

Issue Three

Support for the organization, in terms of both governmental and non-governmental, finances, and recruiting methods: Does the organization have ties to nation-states or is it independent of them and geographically dispersed?  What are the sources of its funding and its recruit base? 

(What could change, weaken, or strengthen that support?  Have there been changes in support for the organization?  If so, what are those changes and why did they occur?)

            For AQ the support structure dates back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the training facilities set up there, then reenergized after the victory of the Taliban in the Afghan civil war.  The support also comes from the religious schools throughout the Middle East and Asia that preach a militant version of Islam.  Most of them are funded by Saudi Arabia.  Other support comes from charitable organizations tolerated by many nations in those regions and overt support was given by the government of Afghanistan from 1996-2001.  Funding also came from organized crime activities, particularly the drug trade.

(Obviously, the aftermath of September 11 has changed that support.  Many more passive supporters -- providing funding but not involved in terrorist actions -- turned against the organization.  The overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the anti-terrorist measures from Pakistan have hurt AQ.  However, reportedly, the US intervention in Iraq has helped recruitment.

 

Issue Four

Strategy, targets, and method of operations: How does the organization intend to achieve its goals, both in terms of long-term strategy and immediate activities?   Does it use mass targeting of civilians for maximum publicity or selective targeting of political figures or economic and infrastructure attacks?  Does it use kidnapping or attacks on military targets?  Does it operate internationally or only locally?  What are its expectations for those operations?  How does it achieve victory?

(Is this strategy likely to be successful?  How has the strategy played out?  Is the organization closer to its goals?)

            For AQ the strategy has been the use of violence in ever larger attacks on civilians. The main target has been the US and occasionally its allies. The method has been car bombs and attacks on planes or use of planes as means of attack. 

(The strategy has been unsuccessful so far.  Instead of causing the US to withdraw from the Middle East, the US is more deeply involved than ever.  AQ seems farther away from its goals.  Some argue, however, that in the long run AQ has manipulated the US into overreacting and overreaching, that the current US intervention in Iraq will backfire on the US.  It will lose support and sympathy around the world.  AQ will gain more recruits.  Ultimately, the difficulties in Iraq will lead the US to withdraw from the Middle East.)

 

 

Issue Five

The nature of counterterrorist efforts against the organization: What measures have been taken by local, regional, and global authorities to combat the organization and what have been the results of these actions?

(Have counterterrorist efforts against the organization achieved success or failure?)

            For AQ there have been numerous responses to September 11: US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; Pakistan turned against the Taliban and turned against militants at home; Saudi Arabia has begun to crack down on militants; US creation of a homeland security agenda and institutions to carry out that agenda; and international coalition against terrorism that supports multinational efforts to crack down on terrorist groups worldwide.

            (Whether these efforts have succeeded or not is still uncertain.  No attacks have been made on the US since September 11; however, numerous attacks have been attempted around the world.  The vast majority have been thwarted, yet some high profile ones have been carried out throughout the world.  The Iraq war has opened up a new theater of attack, but it is uncertain how much of the attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq are the work of AQ-allied organizations.)

 

 

Issue Six (Some groups may have six students in them.  I will assign Issue Six if needed.)

Non-violent political activities of the organization: Is the organization involved in any kind of political activity that is non-violent in nature?  Does it have its own political wing/party that is involved in electoral politics or negotiations with a government?  Does it have a civil society component that provides social welfare or education or community outreach for the poor -- trash collection, soccer leagues, pre-school?

            (What is the effect of these political activities?  Does it build a recruit base, provide funds, or legitimize their violent activities? Has it resulted in a negotiated settlement and possibly an end to violence?)

            For AQ, this is less of an issue.  AQ is such a virtual organization at this point that deep ties to civil society are too geographically-binding.  AQ does have ties to religious schools throughout the world, charity organizations, and mosques, but these serve as conduits for recruits and financing to AQ.  When in Sudan and Afghanistan, however, AQ did provide schooling, scholarship money, charity for local organizations, and even ran legitimate business operations.  In Afghanistan, AQ provided huge amounts of funding to the Taliban-controlled government to help maintain government social welfare projects, religious education, and the religious police.  AQ does not have a wing that negotiates or engages in legitimate political activity.  It is fighting total war and has shown no real willingness to consider its terrorist activities as a prelude to a negotiated settlement, as is the case with many other organizations.

            (Again, AQ is unusual in that it has no geographic base, so its political activities can’t be linked closely to activities that might implicate people in AQ operations.  This is especially so in the current environment in which the world is trying to hunt down AQ.  AQ is fighting total war.  Its religious nature may preclude – at least for now – any negotiations or compromises with the “infidels.”  But if AQ had become involved in these types of activities (social welfare, political action, or negotiations with a government), the result of those activities would be the big question.  Has it resulted in a political settlement, a semi-legitimizing of the organization, or a full-fledged embrace of the organization as a political voice in the region?)

 

We will begin forming the groups and assigning topics early in the semester. 

 

 

The Terrorist Groups

There are many terrorist organizations. The following is the list you may choose from.  On the back of the map quiz there will be a list of these groups and you will be able to choose a first, second, and third favorite.  I will try to place everyone in the first or second choice.  Until the ma quiz (about the third week or course, feel free to learn more about these groups or ask me questions, so you can pick one that will be the most interesting to you).These are groups I feel have been studied in depth.  You will find plenty of information on them.

·        Abu Sayyaf Group: militant Muslim separatist group in the southern Philippines with ties to al-Qaeda.  It often uses kidnapping and bank robberies to fund its activities.

·        Aum Shinrikyo: Bizarre religious-based cult in Japan trying to bring about the end of the world.  It used chemical weapons in the Tokyo subway in 1995.

·        ETA: (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna – Basque Homeland and Freedom): Separatist group in Spain that seeks an independent homeland or at least greater autonomy for the Basque region.  Generally, it tries to cause a lot of damage, but not kill many people.  It has recently begun peace talks with the Spanish government

·        FARC: (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia): Leftist and narco-terrorists responsible for destabilizing the nation

·        HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement): A Palestinian organization responsible for most of the current attacks against Israel.

·        Hizbollah: Lebanese-based group with ties to Iran that has been responsible for attacks against Israel, kidnappings of US citizens, and the 1983 bombing of the US Marine Barracks in Beirut.

·        IRA (Irish Republican Army): Created to push the British out of Northern Ireland.  Though there may be peace in Northern Ireland, there are armed splinters of this that remain actively using or threatening acts of terrorist if the current settlements do not satisfy them.

·        Jemaah Islamiya: Indonesian-based organization which may or may not be AQ’s main ally in Indonesia, but has been held responsible for numerous terrorist bombings.

·        LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam): Sri Lankan group that has been fighting the government for control over the Northeast half of the island nation. It was defeated in the spring and summer of 2009.

·        PKK, Kurdistan Worker’s Party (Kongra-gel or KGK): Marxists ethno-nationalist separatist group trying to create an independent “Kurdistan” out of areas of Turkey.

·        Red Army Faction (also known as Baader-Meinhof Group): 1960s and 1970s left-wing group operating in West Germany.

·        Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.  It developed out of the Algerian Civil War that has been going on since the 1990s (in its current form) and has recently pledged its loyalty to AQ.

·        Shining Path: leftist group in Peru that built itself a formidable army then collapsed after decades of activity due to counterterrorist operations and a leadership crisis.

 

 

Since this is a group project you will be working together to a certain extent.  This means that you should expect to share sources with each other.  For example, there may be one copy of the best book on HAMAS at the library.  Don’t hog it.  Work out a schedule for each of you to take turns with the book.  Tell each other of good websites and good journal articles.  Don’t be afraid to share sources on this topic.  Your specific issues are different enough that you will be interested in different aspects of the same sources.  If anyone has any problem with this, let me know.

 

 

Source requirements

  • You must use at least ten sources.
  • At least two of those sources must be from the web. You must use at least one book and one journal article. Your research cannot be completely from the web.
  • None of the assigned readings for the class count as a source.  You can use them, but they do not count as part of the ten sources required. 
  • Wikipedia cannot be used as one of the ten sources.  It is an encyclopedia and encyclopedias were off limits as research sources when you were in High School.  In other words: don’t use wikipedia.
  • If you have questions, talk to me sooner rather than later. 

 

I don't think I need to tell you much about the web. In college I wrote papers on a manual typewriter and I took my SATs on stone tablets. But if you do have any questions about it let me know. An important note about internet sites: what is crucial about any webpage is that you and I know who the source of the information is. All information on the web is not equal. Before you trust any information on the web you must know who runs the websites. Who is the source of the information? The US Nazi Party has many websites. Their information is probably not a source you want to use for research on Israeli foreign policy, for example. Also, if you find a website that deals with human rights in China, you need to know if it is run by the Chinese government; its views will be a bit biased. So you need to know who runs the site, and you need to tell me that in the notation.  In your bibliography you must cite internet information properly!!!! There are several established formats.  Here’s one that I use:

 

A government document:

George W. Bush. The National Security Strategy of the United States of America. September 2002.  Available at www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf.  Accessed October 2, 2002. 

A newspaper article

            Stephen Farrell. “Palestinian Bomb Attack Threatens Hopes for Peace.” Times On Line. January 13, 2005. Available at www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1437764,00.html.  Accessed January 13, 2005.

 

For a document/article you found on the web (This doesn’t have an author, so start with the title, but if it does have an author start with that.

            “What Can the US Do In Iraq?” Middle East Report No. 34. International Crisis Group. 22 December 2004. Available at www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?id=3196&l=1  Accessed January 13, 2005.

 

So, you must include the following: author (if identified); title of article, essay, database, document; organization that sponsors the posting of the information; web address (use this form: Available at http://whatever); and date accessed (because information on the internet is updated and frequently reedited or eliminated). If you have questions about this, ask me. But if you don’t ask me and you simply give me the web address, I will take points off your paper.

 

There are excellent journals that you can use that deal with the range of issues we’ll address in class. We have on line access to a lot of great journals and there are hard copies of many as well on the second floor of the library.  Use the Public Affairs Information Service or ABC POL SCI indexes.  Those are the hard copy indexes, both located in the library reference section.  You may use the on line ones instead.  PAIS is also online. Ask a reference librarian to help you find these indexes.  Of course, the on line library data bases are great as well.  On any of them you can search under several keywords (George Bush and Department of Homeland Security for the example above) or under a subject and a journal title (to get the works on a given subject from a specific journal that you have found useful, for example GHW Bush and Asian Survey to get info on GHW Bush policy toward China).  If you have problems getting the journals on line, let me know.  Look up either a country or an issue and you will find excellent lists of articles.

Use books too! For this assignment, books are your best resource. The web is nice, but again, it includes information, not knowledge. The difference is simple. Information is up to the minute data, piles and piles of facts and figures. Knowledge is data plus perspective, plus analysis. What does the data mean in the context of history, of theories about the issue you are studying, of the developments in that nation and the world? The internet does not contain books yet, and therefore it will tell you what happened yesterday, but not if what happened yesterday is typical, unusual, or fits a pattern that goes back 10,000 years.  Everything on the internet is new and it has the perspective of newness – everything is happening for the first time.  That is simply not true.  The internet is also generally not peer reviewed.  This means that what you see on the internet is generally not reviewed by anyone.  I can post an essay on how to do brain surgery. It will sound very authentic (Dr. William W. Newmann), but I have a Ph.D. in Public Policy.  I can tell the difference between a brain and a lung, but that’s not really enough to perform brain surgery.  So if you like conspiracy theories, particularly about 9/11, notice how very few of the Professors who preach conspiracy theories are Professors of Political Science or International Relations.  It tells you something, doesn’t it (I’m part of the conspiracy!).  So, use books or journals.  The answers may be there. Books and journals are reviewed by scholars before they are ever published, reviewed and reviewed and reviewed, so that every word and fact is checked and double checked.  This is why it takes forever to publish books and journals, but they get the facts right and they ideas and examined.  Sometimes this is not true these days.  There are publishing house that specialize in right wing or left wing books, so they publish propaganda, not scholarship.  Check to see who the person is.  Is it a scholar attached to a university or a journalist attached to a newspaper?  Those are generally good sources.  Or is it a pundit, someone linked to a political party, whose job is to write books that use junk scholarship and junk science to perpetuate a political ideology.

 

Bibliography and Endnote Style

For proper style of notes and bibliography see Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers, some other recognized resource on style, or copy the style used by one of the books you used for your research. Pay attention t this! You must learn how to reference information properly, and how to write a bibliography with the correct and complete information. This is easy to do, but more important than you think. Whether you go into academia or business you will be judged on the quality of your information, and that means people will want to know where you found your information. They will judge you at first, before they read your text, on your bibliography and citations (footnotes/endnotes/parenthetical references). So make sure you include all the important information in both notes and bibliography. Since I have instructed you to pay attention to notation and bibliographic style, and have provided you with a specific place to look for the proper styles, I will take points off of your paper if you do not do this in the correct manner. This is simple. If you do not do it correctly it means one or both of the following: 1) you are not taking the assignment seriously or are too lazy to do the paper correctly; and/or 2) you are doing the paper at the last minute. Both of these are good reasons why you will not get the grade you are able to earn. Most importantly, you need to get used to doing things the proper way. In college I will take points off if you do something the wrong way or don’t try to find out the proper way to do something. In the business world your boss will simply fire you. This is particularly true about finding information. In the business world you will be judged on the quality of your knowledge, the information that you can provide to potential clients or your boss. Everyone needs to be able to judge the quality of your in formation and they can only do that if they know the source of the information. Get used to this.

 

Also, I realize that in many cases instructors in ENGL 200 are telling you to include reference material in the text of the paper.  However, this is exactly the wrong way to reference in social science.  What I mean is the following. 

 

  • Don’t do this: Gabriel Weimann, a Professor of Communications at Haifa University, states in his book Terror on the Internet that the internet enhances terrorist power to organize and recruit.

 

  • Instead do this: Weimann states that the internet enhances terrorist power to organize and recruit. (add endnote here.)

 

  • Also, for references, you must include the page number where you found the information, if available.

 

 

Nitpicks

 

  • Quotes: Do not include quotes.  This paper is too short for quotes. 
  • Make a copy of the paper for yourself before you hand it in to me. There are two reasons for this. If you have a copy, you don't have to worry about me losing a copy. I have never lost anyone's paper, but just in case you should always make sure that you have a copy of your paper with you, in any class, not just this one.
  • WHEN YOU TYPE YOUR PAPER ON A COMPUTER MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP DISK WITH THE PAPER ON IT. AS YOU TYPE THE PAPER SAVE THE FILE TO THE BACKUP DISK EVERY TEN MINUTES OR SO. This is especially important if you type on the university computers.
  • Putting your paper on the hard drive in the computer lab is useless if they sweep the hard drives of files at night. Keep a backup copy for yourself. I have several backup copies of anything I write. You don't ever want to lose work because you didn't back it up.
  • Make sure you have a subject and verb in every sentence. (You would be surprised how many important journals and books allow non-sentence sentences). This is non-fiction, not fiction. So you need to observe the basic rules of grammar. A long sentence is not necessarily a better sentence -- each sentence should express only one thought. Don't be afraid to break up a long sentence into two or three shorter ones. It will usually flow better that way.
  • As always, ask me questions, early and often.

 

 

LATE PAPERS: I will mark late papers down ONE GRADE for each day late. That means that an almost perfect paper -- one that I would give 98 points to -- becomes an 88 if one day late, 78 if two days late, etc,... all the way down to 8 points if nine days late, and zero points if ten days late. Talk to me if you are having some family or personal problems. If there is a serious need to get an extension on the paper, I will give you an extension.  I do realize that there are more important things in life than this class and this assignment.  So if you run into a problem, talk to me. Computer problems do not count as a problem that warrants an extension.  If you are writing your paper at the last minute and you have a problem, the moral of the story is that you should not have been writing your paper at the last minute.  If you have a printer problem, no problem, give me your disk and I will print up the paper, or come to my office hours and we'll print up the paper at my office.  If you have some kind of computer problem, and you are not writing your paper at the last minute, let me know.  Maybe I can help.