Terrorism and Security (RIS535)

Content

Increased focus on protection from terrorism, espionage, cybersecurity and other malicious crimes has led to increased interest in the topic of security, especially in risk and policy studies. This course aims to outline the conceptual and scientific demarcation of security, and discuss the development and status of security science. In this course, security will be presented as a multifaceted concept and the general changes and developments of security as an object of study will be outlined. The management of risks is a central element in the current understanding of security and the students will be presented to different approaches to achieve organizational and societal security, including approaches to risk management, resilience analysis and regulations regimes. In this course, terrorism, extremism and other security threats will be understood as wicked policy problems. The aim is to provide the student with the state of the art of terrorism research, including historical trends, the current threat picture and future challenges, and how terrorism and extremism create fear and distrust. Additionally, the course illustrates how our notions of extremism and terrorism are culturally, socially and historically constructed, and subsequent that the perception of terrorism influences countermeasures.

Learning outcome

General competence:

After completing the course, the students will have acquired in-depth knowledge about security as a scientific and practical field. The students will have knowledge on how security can be fostered and managed.

Knowledge:

Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge about what security is and how security can be fostered and managed from an organizational and societal perspective
• demonstrate knowledge about the relationship between security and resilience
• demonstrate knowledge about historical, current and future trends in terrorism and being able to apply this knowledge when concocting risk analysis
• understand and discuss the consequences of applying different perspective to security risk analysis and security governance

Skills

Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:

• apply security risk analysis and resilience analysis
• understand and reflect upon the challenges with managing and building resilience against security threats such as terrorism from a multi-level perspective
• understand how to how perception and political aspects influences countermeasures
• reflect critically on what terrorism and extremism is and what means these threats can be managed through

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Exam

Coursework requirements

1 group-based assignment

One mandatory assignments must be approved in order to get access to the exam.

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Sissel Haugdal Jore

Head of Department:

Tore Markeset

Method of work

Lectures, discussions, and group-work

Open for

Admission to Single Courses at the Faculty of Science and Technology

Exchange programme at Faculty of Science and Technology

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course coordinator, the student representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital course evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature