Choose a terrorist organization that you are interested in learning more about and write an informative, thoroughly researched paper about it. In your paper, you should clearly explain the following characteristics of the organization in detail: its formation, leadership structure, ideology, recruitment process, funding, agenda, goals, use of various tactics (for example different terrorist attacks, use of female suicide bombers, etc.), failures and successes, and decline (if it is not currently active).
While doing that you can focus on one or more of the following questions:
-Has the organization emerged as a violent militia or as a religious/social movement? If the latter is the case, how has the transition occurred? What triggered the use of violence?
– How effective was the use of terrorism in so far as this organization is concerned? Has the use of terrorist attacks helped the organization achieve its short-term/long-term objectives? Or was terrorism counterproductive?
– What particular organizational strategies increased the domestic or international support for the organization in question? (i.e. : the use of public goods? private goods to specific recruits? Social media? Etc.)
– If the organization has demised or stopped using terrorist attacks, what kinds of factors have led to this outcome? Have the leaders been caught or killed? Was it an aggressive military campaign, state repression or a specific counter terrorism strategy that ended the activities of the organization? A negotiated settlement? Loss of popular support?
FINDING SOURCES:
Find 10 (minimum) to 30 sources including library books, journal articles, professional publications and internet sources. Please do NOT solely rely on internet or use Wikipedia. Search for books and articles in the big databases such as WorldCat, Google Scholar, JSTOR, Web of Science. Stanford Library has xSearch which will search multiple databases simultaneously.
Browse and search specialist journals such as Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence or Perspectives on Terrorism. You can also search for theses and dissertations on ProQuest.
You can also use newspapers: The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, etc.
PAPER SPECIFICS:
Your papers should have the following parts:
Title: summarize your paper in 2-10 words. Keep it short, yet intriguing; it should encourage the reader to read the paper.
Introduction: sets the stage for the rest of your paper. Briefly discuss what your paper is about. State your thesis, which a brief statement, in your own words, that points out the major issues about this topic that you discovered in your research.
Body of Paper: Develop your thoughts, incorporate class material, give examples. Use subheadings, where appropriate, to separate different aspects of your paper. The body of your paper should provide supporting evidence to support your thesis, in a logical, fully developed manner. If you do not use subheadings, you need to provide transition sentences to move your reader from one paragraph to the next.
Conclusion: Your conclusion should make some “wrap up” statements about what you learned about your chosen topic. Also, address any issues that may still not be resolved for you.
Bibliography: must include at least 10 different sources. Every source that you cite in your paper should also be in the bibliography.
* You need to make sure that your paper does not read like a laundry list. For example, Anderson (1993) said X, Pape (2003) said Y, etc. You should be able to gather a body of knowledge on a particular subject, narrow it down to a particular focus and show that you can synthesize the information and make some intelligent, insightful observations about the subject. A significant part of the paper should be your interpretation of the information and how your knowledge about the subject has been enriched.
Be sure to EDIT/PROOFREAD your paper before you submit- delete redundant words and break down complex sentences; make sure your sentences are clear, consistent and logical. Avoid the use of slang in your paper. Convert passive into active voice. Remember what Robert Cormier said: “The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to be right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.”
Poorly written papers will result in grade deductions.
FORMAT:
Papers must be typ
ed.
Use Times New Roman, 12 Font.
Length – 15 double spaced pages of text (not including the reference page.
Margins – 1 inch top, bottom, left, right.
