MOOC: Understanding Terrorism and the Terrorist Threat

[Antoninov]

Hep,

 

à tous ceux intéressés par le sujet, je conseille vivement ce MOOC sur la plate-forme Coursera:

 

 

Understanding Terrorism and the Terrorist Threat

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.

 

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Eligible for

Verified Certificate

Course at a Glance

8 weeks of study

2-5 hours/week of work / week

English

Earn official recognition for your work

 

 

Verified Certificate

Instructors

 

Dr. Gary LaFree

University of Maryland, College Park

 

Bill Braniff

University of Maryland, College Park

Categories

Social Sciences

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About the Course

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 have the opportunity to 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.

 

 

 

Course Syllabus

Module 1: Introduction - How Do We Study Terrorism?

Module 2: Individual Radicalization

Module 3: Group Dynamics

Module 4: Operations

Module 5: Putting it all together: Al-Qa'ida Case Study

 

 

Le cours est principalement basé sur les données de la Global Terrorism Database (GTD).

 

Je vous en dirai plus petit à petit...

 

[Antoninov]

http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/

 

 

The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2013 (with annual updates planned for the future). Unlike many other event databases, the GTD includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents that have occurred during this time period and now includes more than 125,000 cases.

[Antoninov]

 

Of the 2,343 separate terrorist organizations that are now named in the Global Terrorism Database, just under half of them are associated with a single attack. An addition 513 organizations, that's about 20%, carried out more than one attack, but all of their attacks took place within a one-year time frame. So this is a quite interesting feature of how terrorist organizations operate. It means that more than 70% of the perpetrator terrorist organizations recorded in the GTD, carried out terrorist attacks that lasted for less than a year. 

 

Sur 2343 organisations terroristes (et 130.000 actes terroristes sur les 40 dernières années),

- près de 50% n'ont effectué qu'une seule attaque;

- près de 20% ont effectué plusieurs attaques mais toutes sur une durée d'un an tout au plus