HSEP 301 (POLI/CRJS 367)
Spring 2008
Review 1
The exam will consist of two sections:
Terms with an asterisk before them are those that are also addressed in the readings.
Impact of September 11
*War on terrorism/ terrorist war on US
Defining Terrorism
1.
*Political
Agenda
*Terrorism is agenda setting
Success of Palestinian terrorism in agenda setting
2.
Violence as
the method
*Terrorism as a weapon of the weak
Asymmetric warfare
*Attacking the enemy by causing it pain and creating fear
Al-Qaeda’s hope: US will feel the pain/fear and withdraw from the
3.
*Civilians as
targets
*Civilian as audience and civilian as target
4.
*Publicity
Key Issues
*Terrorism as crime vs. terrorism as warfare
Categories for terrorist groups
*Ideological
*Ethno-national
Narco-terrorism
*Religious nationalism
Why a typology is useful for counterterrorism
*Who becomes a terrorist and why
old poverty thesis
characteristics of leaders vs. members
Factors:
Financial gain
Ideology
Revenge
*Identity and how this changes the lives of the frustrated and humiliated
*Frustrated loners searching for identity, purpose
*those who feel marginalized
*humiliation
*alienation
Lack of mobility
Imprisonment, torture, and radicalization
Expectations and frustration
*Societal transitions and those who feel threatened
*Suicide attacks
Reasons why suicide attacks are used
Current trends
*Religious nationalism
Development of weapons of mass destruction capability
*Globalization’s role
*Independence of terrorist groups
*Terrorist network structures
*leaderless resistance
*Does terrorism work? Arguments for and against
On not confusing ends (political goals) with means (methods of achieving those goals)
History of Terrorism
*Terrorism is not new
*Zealots, assassins, thugs
*First Wave of modern terrorism
*Russian terrorists
WW I
Second Wave
*Ethnonationalism
*Irgun
*
*Third Wave
*Leftist groups in Europe and
*Soviet role
*PLO
*IRA
*Low casualties/targeted attacks
*religious vs. secular terrorism
*Cooperation among different groups
Fourth Wave
*Global and religious
*Iranian revolution
*Afghan war vs. Soviets
*“Jihadis” or non-Afghans who came to
*alliance against the USSR and backing for mujahadin
role of US,
*role of Madrassas (Saudi funded religious schools)
*Soviet defeat: all the vets of the Afghan war go home and launch local “jihad” against their governments
*Taliban
Current foe fighting the
An ideology, Revolutionary Islam
*Global threat
*Regional threat
Uses terrorism as a tactic
*Network of networks
Have a strong knowledge of the PPT Figure on the Origins of Fourth Wave Terrorism
Al-Qaeda
Origins, Objectives, Doctrines
*In
*Militant Islam and Arab Nationalism defining objectives
*Goals in
*Global goal: recreation of the caliphate
*1998 fatwa
Leadership and leadership structure
*Osama bin-Laden’s background
*Decentralization, regional nodes, cells
*Central leadership
Organizational chart
*Cells
*Regional nodes and entrepreneurship
Corporate vs. network model
Types of networks
*Links to regional groups
*Jemmah Islamiyah
*Abu Sayyaf Group
*global reach of Al-Qaeda
*Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
*different level of affiliations with AQ
Support for Al-Qaeda
*Training of recruits
*Ethnic makeup of membership
*Funding
*Hawala
*infiltration of Islamic charities
*In
*In alliance with Taliban
Strategy and Tactics
The Debate: Near or Far Enemy
Models for achieving AQ goals
Tactics
*Operations: Hit the
*Create global network to match US global reach
*Maximize casualty level
*Lessons of Beirut 1983 and Somalia 1993
*1993 Trade Center attack
*Oplan Bojinka
*Embassy attacks 1998
*Shift since 9/11
*Tactical operations
Counterterrorism measures
US-led overthrow of Taliban
*Global alliance vs. terrorism
*Pakistan’s role
US overthrow of Saddam Hussein
*counterideology?
Religion and Terrorism
*How does religion get twisted into terrorism?
Why is that more prevalent from 1980s on?
Increase in the role of religion in politics worldwide
The reasons for this
*Globalization and transformation
*Elements in many societies have fought change
*Extreme reaction is to fight that change through violence, creating terrorism
Characteristics of religious-based
terrorism
*War analogy
*Cosmic war
*Demonization of enemy
*Conspiracies
*Empowering of alienated individuals
*True faith
*Linkage to mainstream issues
AQ goals minus the Islamic rhetoric: a coherent political agenda and ideology that calls for revolution
The revolutionary ideology as a very small segment of Islamic thought
Diversity of Islam
Sunni vs. Shi’a Islam
Geography
Ideas and Politics in Islam
A spectrum on government involvement in religious, social, economic life (remembering that the more orthodox oen gets in just about any religion, the less separation of church and state you accept)
Within societies a wide array of opinion
Government vs. the population
In authoritarian societies such as
What happens to the liberal reformers?
What happens to the radical cleric reformers?
Rise of Militant Islam
*Why the Middle East?
Lack of democracy
Rising expectations
Inequality
Socialist economics
*
*HAMAS suicide bombings
*recruitment of bombers and humiliation
*Lashkar Jihad
*HUM in
*command organization
*madrassas
*dissatisfaction for some jihadis
*Far right Israeli extremists
*justifying attacks on Muslims
Terrorism in the
KKK
Puerto Rican Nationalist attacks on US House of Representatives
Weathermen/Weather Underground
*Modern Extreme Right
*
*
Anthrax Letters Fall 2001
*Merger of most radical Evangelical Christianity beliefs with White Supremacy (Klan, Nazis)
The Groups:
Aryan Nation
The New Order
*Christian Identity movement
Elements of the ideology
*Pure Faith
*White Supremacy
*Male Domination
*Focus on the Endtimes/apocalypse
*Anti-non-Christian
*Anti-government – ZOG
*Ties to mainstream groups
*Turner Diaries
*Use of web
*Who joins
*Leaderless resistance
Ruby Ridge
Waco Texas and Branch Davidians