Understanding and Countering Radicalisation and Terrorism

This module provides students with an introduction to the phenomena of radicalisation and terrorism, including key definitions, causal accounts, empirical trends, past and present manifestations, current groups and tactics. With a rigorous grounding in the empirical reality of terrorism trends and processes, the course then outlines a number of prevalent counter-terrorism practices and asks the question: what works in countering terrorism?

Course leader

Dr. Amy Thornton

Target group

This is a level one module (equivalent to first year undergraduate). No prior subject knowledge is required for this module, but students are expected to have a keen interest in the area.

Course aim

Upon successful completion of this module, students will:

Be able to understand terrorism and radicalisation from a distinctive security and crime science perspective
Be able to understand ‘what works’ in preventing and disrupting radicalisation and terrorism
Be able to critically reflect on the conceptual and methodological issues involved in studying radicalisation and terrorism as concrete scientific problems
Have the ability to consider what a scientific approach implies for the design and implementation of preventative or disruptive social technologies.