Syllabus
Tentative course outline
1. Introduction: Course plan, syllabus, and requirements
2. The concept and patterns of terrorism before 9/11
3. Terrorism after 9/11
4. Counterterrorism before and after 9/11
5. EU’s counterterrorism policy after 9/11: The legal framework
6. EU’s counterterrorism policy after 9/11: The institutional framework
7. Contemporary issues and debates (not only) in the EU’s counterterrorism policy: Radicalization and de-radicalization
8. US counterterrorism policy
9. Czech counterterrorism policy
10. Student presentations
11. Student presentations
12. Counterterrorism: Lessons learned since 9/11
Annotation
COURSE DESCRIPTION (professor Bures' course winter term only): The aim of this one-semester course is to familiarize students with the measures the European Union (EU), the United States (US), the Czech Republic, and other countries and international organizations have taken to combat terrorism after the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks on the US. After an overview of the history and the evolving nature of the terrorist threat and possible responses to it, the following topics will be discussed: the origins of EU’s counterterrorism policy and the key pre-9/11 developments in this area; the EU’s Plan of Action that was adopted immediately after 9/11 and has functioned as a road map for all subsequent developments and changes of EU counterterrorism policy; the major legal measures and key institutional innovations that have been adopted in the area of Justice and Home Affairs according to this Plan of Action.
We will then explore the US counterterrorism policy and discuss its differences and similarities with the EU counterterrorism measures and approaches. A guest lecturer from the Czech Ministry of Interior will take us through a similar exercise for the Czech counterterrorism policy.
In the last session, we will look beyond Europe and US to explore counterterrorism policies of other major states and organizations.