Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Political Violence and Insurgency

''This course will explore key theories and methods in the study of political violence with a specific focus on insurgency and terrorism. We will focus on the key why’s how’s and what’s in the study of terrorism and insurgency. The focus in the class is less on a specific geographic or substantive area then on learning to think conceptually and theoretically and how to produce analytical research. Each week we will read foundational works in the field and also discuss not only the findings but how they were found. This will be then applied to the ongoing research efforts students will be making in the class. ''

Objectives of the Course:

By the end of the course students should have:

1. An understanding of the major questions and theories related to terrorism and insurgency.

2. Experience with using at least one of the traditional methods for analyzing comparative politics and an awareness of the other key methods.

3. Increased understanding of social science research through participation in a terrorism research project.

4. The opportunity to contribute through original work to research on terrorism or insurgency.

Course Requirements


 * 40% Participation


 * The course will be taught in a seminar fashion built around the class working jointly on research and exercises. This means that we will all be dependent on the efforts of others and participation will determine the success of the learning experience. Participation is more than attendance; it includes active and thoughtful participation in all elements of the class. Active and thoughtful participation is dependent on a thorough reading of the material as well as preparation for exercises to be conducted in class. In addition students are expected to prepare comments for each class starting in the third week.


 * Comments starting for third week of reading due the Friday before


 * Students are required to submit 2 comments or questions illustrating comprehension of the assigned material each week. Students can choose to submit 2 questions, 2 comments, or one of each.  Each comment must come from a different assigned reading or media piece in order to count.  Comments can focus on something you find interesting, surprising, disagree with, etc.  Additionally, comments may “connect the dots” between assigned readings we will discuss during the semester.  Importantly, the commentaries should not be summaries of the reading.  Instead they should reflect your thoughts and analysis on the week’s topic and cases.  For example, why do you find a particular topic interesting?  How does the reading help you reflect on something in the news recently?  How does the reading help you understand the topic more effectively?  Is there something you disagree with and why?  Etc. Questions can indicate a topic you find confusing and why you are unclear on the matter.


 * 10% - 1500 word Wikipedia entry on VEO (either new or expansion of stub)


 * 50% - Final project (can be more than one person)


 * Longer Wikipedia effort


 * Longer article


 * Outline of articles which is an organized list of Wikipedia articles


 * Example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_Switzerland


 * Search Outline of =


 * Research Project


 * Literature review


 * Educational Simulation Project