Undergraduate - UnitATS2701 - Terrorism and political violence: An introduction

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Offered	Not offered in 2014
Coordinator(s)	TBA

Notes

Previously coded PLT2650

Synopsis

This subject provides an overview of contemporary political violence, including terrorism, guerrilla warfare, and related forms of violence. It examines the different ways in which political violence manifests itself and addresses the questions of motivations for engaging in political violence and ways of understanding political violence. In so doing it covers cultural, economic and political explanations as well as conceptual debates in the fieldand different strategies for dealing with the threat of global terrorism. This unit analyses case studies of violent actors that espouse different ideological and theological orientations from different parts of the world, including Australia.

Outcomes

After successfully completing this subject students should be able to demonstrate the following:

A detailed understanding of the cultural, economic, social and religious circumstances that lie behind the spread of politically motivated violence;
A detailed understanding of how politically motivated violence challenges established domestic and international political norms; especially in the areas of citizenship, state surveillance, and international cooperation between states;
A thorough understanding of violent secessionist groups, insurgencies, and international terrorist networks and how these networks might impact on national and international security;
An enhanced ability to contribute in a constructive way to public debates in areas such pre-emptive military action, peacekeeping, intelligence and surveillance, and other pertinent contemporary issues relating to government policies designed to both minimize and control the threat posed by politically motivated violence;
A solid grounding in a range of case-based examples of terrorist and other forms of political violenceas perpetrated by various ideological and theological actors from different parts of the world, including Australia.

Assessment

Written and Tutorial work: 60%
2 hours exam: 40%

Chief examiner(s)

TBA

Workload requirements

2 hours (One 1-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial ) per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Politics
International relations
International studies

Prerequisites

Two gateway units in politics.

Prohibitions

ATS3701