MSc Econ Terrorism and International Relations

This degree provides students with a specialist introduction to the study of Terrorism in international relations. The programme is designed to facilitate a critical awareness of the theory and practice of terrorism in contemporary world politics. The issues and debates explored in the programme include:

• Contending understandings of, and conceptual debates concerning, the ‘nature' of terrorism
• The multiple manifestations of terrorism in the modern world
• The religious, ideological, nihilistic motivations of those who deploy terror to further their causes.
• The use of state terror as well as the use of terror by anti-state groups, liberation and independence movements.
• The extent to which terrorism can be understood in a continuum of violence that includes guerrilla warfare, and whether terrorism may be seen as a legitimate counter to conventional uses of political, legal and military force.
• The programme deals with complex issues and debates at the cutting edge of the contemporary study of terrorism, seeking to ensure that students can think systematically about them, and communicate their understandings to specialist and non-specialist audiences.