TERRORISM AND SECURITY IN INTERNATIONAL HISTORY

The course will deal with the historical evolution of terrorism and counterterrorism over the past 150 years, in the wide context of both diplomatic and transnational history. It will provide an in-depth analysis of several important terrorist crises and the reactions to them in the West and beyond.

The general framework is laid out in three parts:
1. The roots of the phenomenon: definition of terrorism in history between the XVIII and XIX Centuries. It introduces students to the debates over the definition of terrorism and the causes of the phenomenon. It explores the use of terrorism both by institutional and state apparatus and by non-state groups.

2. Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism prior to the Cold War. It explores the concept of terrorism, the types of terrorism and prominent terrorist groups in the first global wave of terrorism in the first half of the 1900s.
In detail:
- Anarchist terrorism;
- Russian terrorism;
- Terrorism of State;
- Terrorism in time of War.

3. Western experience with terrorisms (national and international) and the issue of security (the cases of United States, France, German Federal Republic, and Italy). This part focuses on the ideologies that motivate individuals and groups to resort to terrorism in the wide cadre of international relations, between the Cold War and the rise of the multipolar world.
Furthermore, it describes the impact of state response toward terrorism both in the international and European scenarios.
In detail:
- National terrorism: ideological terrorism and counterterrorism policies;
- The roots of International Terrorism in the Cold War system;
- European States' response toward International Terrorism in the XX century.

Finally, the course will also provide a brief analysis of contemporary terrorism and counter-terrorism, in comparative, historical and diachronic perspective, drawing distinctions between “traditional” terrorism and "new" international terrorism.