DWA 255 Terrorism and Democracy

The course will use popular culture allegories as a strategy for building a complex understanding of the nature of transnational terrorism in the post-9/11 era and challenges faced by policy makers in this arena. It will begin with a review of key approaches and concepts in security studies and will confront different definitions of terrorism. The course will then go on to discuss certain policy responses that have elicited particular concern such as torture assassination surveillance programs detention without trial and deliberate entrapment. Cyborg Zombie and Lord of The Ring allegories will serve to illustrate different conceptual and practical approaches to terrorism. The course will conclude with an examination of the different implications for policy decision making suggested by the use of different allegories.