Welcome to the Moodle page for Contemporary Debates in Counter-Terrorism Studies!

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the nature of counter-terrorism. It will focus on different forms of counter-terrorism and will provide a critical assessment of the effectiveness and flaws of different CT strategies and tactics.  The course will also focus attention on several case studies to illustrate the role and impact of counter-terrorism policies and the lessons that can be learnt from them, including the British/Northern Ireland campaign and the US/Al-Qaeda campaign, as well as the response to the contemporary threat presented by ISIS or Daesh. States can respond to terrorism and low intensity conflicts with a range of approaches and these will be explored and critically assessed. Such approaches include the role of the military in counter-terrorism, the role of intelligence in counter-terrorism, the legislative response, international cooperation in countering terrorism, tackling terrorist finances, the use of negotiation and disengagement from terrorism.