Any topic (writer’s choice)

Over the last twelve weeks, you have immersed yourself in the study of terrorism, familiarized yourself with the writings of noted scholars in the field, reflected on the various issues, learned and applied relevant theories, debated various aspects with fellow classmates, and successfully contended with the written assignments. Your long journey culminates today with a challenging requirement, one that enables you to prove your knowledge of the facts, to apply this knowledge to analyze cases and processes related to terrorism, and to demonstrate your ability to critically integrate this knowledge of the cases with theory. Significantly, this final project requires you to investigate the soundness of one terrorism-related assumption or hypothesis when applied to your case studies.

Use three cases, one representing ideological terrorism (e.g., Baader-Meinhof in Germany), the second representing nationalist terrorism (e.g., the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam in Sri Lanka), and the third religious terrorism (e.g., the alleged Iranian state-sponsored terrorism), to analyze each according to four distinct requirements as outlined below:

Identify and describe the facts of each case separately, the individuals or groups involved, the perpetrators, declared objectives, the authorities, reaction, and the eventual outcome.

Apply your understanding of the case studies to analyze the processes leading to each event/case, the circumstances surrounding the ways each event unfolded, and the causes responsible for the subsequent results. If appropriate, distinguish between facts and commonly held myths about these cases.

Evaluate each of the three cases according to the same one assumption or hypothesis concerning causes of terrorism from the repertoire of theory you have acquired during this course.

Discuss the usefulness of the selected assumption/hypothesis when applied to each of the three cases. Specifically, assess whether or not it is relevant and contributes to the analysis and understanding of each case.
Your essay should be about 1,500-2,000 words long (about 6-8 double-spaced pages). Construct the reply by mirroring the format of the question and providing four distinct sections: A, B, C and D.