START's free, online course, "Understanding Terrorism and the Terrorist Threat," begins Jan. 27. The last day to register is Feb. 7.
Register through Coursera now.
This course will explore questions relating to the who, what and how of terrorism studies by introducing students to cutting edge research and the experts investigating these topics.
Terrorism Studies does not fall within any one traditional academic discipline, and it is often plagued by subjectivity and a lack of empirical data. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence housed at the University of Maryland, will apply its multi-disciplinary and mixed-method approach to research in this course, utilizing theory and quantitative and qualitative research from a range of the social and behavioral sciences including Criminology, Psychology, Political Science and Communications Studies.
The course will begin with a unit looking at widely held myths about terrorism and utilizing empirical data to discuss the realities of broad trends and patterns in terrorist attacks over time. The course will then review the psychological factors at play in individual radicalization and recruitment into terrorism, followed by an analysis of terrorist group dynamics. The course will next look to factors that allow terrorist groups to successfully carry out attacks, such as propaganda, use of media, financing, recruitment, and training. The course will conclude by looking at the factors that drive terrorist group persistence/endurance versus terrorist group desistance, and will bring the varied course concepts together through a detailed look at the case of al-Qa’ida, including the group’s successes, failures, tactics, and strategies. Throughout the course, students will work with the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database (GTD), the largest database of terrorist incidents in the world, learning its capabilities and developing basic skills in searching and displaying appropriate and accurate sets of terrorism data.