Task Force on Political Violence and Terrorism

The objective of the APSA Task Force on Political Violence and Terrorism is to assess the contribution of political science to the understanding of how trends in civil violence affect domestic and international political order and to share findings with the public. From APSA President Margaret Levi: With the goal of enriching public understanding of the political violence and terrorism that so threaten national security, the American Political Science Association has constituted a Task Force on Political Violence and Terrorism, chaired by Professor Martha Crenshaw, Stanford University.  As with the earlier APSA Public Presence Task Forces, there are two primary and interdependent aims of this task force:  first, to clarify what political scientists know on the subject; and, second, to covey this knowledge in a way that makes it accessible  and useful to the media, policy-makers, an informed public (including our own members who are not specialists in the given area), and students.  By making our expertise relevant to the debate, we hope to help raise the quality of public discourse. Read more >>
Teaching Courses on Political Violence and Terrorism The APSA Task Force on Political Violence and Terrorism has compiled a bibliography of political science resources on the study of political violence and terrorism and a set of syllabi for model courses (and units within courses) on political violence and terrorism for secondary school and college levels. Follow the links below to these resources and information on how these resources were compiled: Statement on Sources    A Bibliography of Political Science Resources on the Study of Political Violence   Exemplary Syllabi All Syllabi    Datasets  Please send any syllabi that you wish to share with a wider community to David Mason (masontd@unt.edu) with a copy to David Laitin (dlaitin@stanford.edu). Welcome from David Laitin, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University, Task Force member and chair of public outreach: Welcome to the public outreach web page of the Task Force on Political Violence and Terrorism.   The goal of this web site is to make research in political science on political violence available to students, teachers, journalists, and public servants. We have now posted a range of syllabi for political science courses that deal with political violence and terrorism. We have chosen several of these as exemplary for the public, and we have organized the readings from all the syllabi into a general bibliography. These syllabi and accompanying teaching modules are useful for all levels, from secondary schools to graduate and professional courses. It should also serve for Model UN and other extra-curricular clubs. In the future we intend to provide Task Force reports that summarize the latest political science knowledge on political violence and terrorism. We also plan to conduct interviews with leading experts from the political science community that can be downloaded. Finally, we hope to construct a file of leading experts on related topics, with their contact information, so that their expertise can be tapped beyond their home universities.		Resources (links to be added as the items are developed) Teaching Courses on Political Violence: Bibliography, Syllabi, etc.  Datasets Interviews Experts Draft Task Force Reports "How Political Violence Ends: Paths to Conflict Deescalation and Termination"   "Consolidating Peace and Mitigating Conflict in the Aftermath of Violence" Task Force Members Martha Crenshaw Stanford University, Chair Robert H. Bates Harvard University Jeannine Bell Indiana University Christian Davenport University of Maryland Donatella Della Porta European University Institute Fen Hampson Carleton University Stathis N. Kalyvas Yale University David D. Laitin Stanford University Margaret Levi, APSA President University of Washington, Seattle Jack S. Levy Rutgers University T. David Mason University of North Texas Cynthia McClintock George Washington University Marc Ross Bryn Mawr College Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca Juan March Institute - Madrid Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott Eastern Michigan University Barbara F. Walter University of California - San Diego Elisabeth Jean Wood Yale University
Questions & Comments Your suggestions for additional materials are encouraged. Please contact Robert Hauck, APSA Deputy Director and Liaison to this Task Force, to share your ideas or for additional information about this Task Force. Task Force Operations and Acknowledgements APSA is contributing $10,000/year for the two-year term of the Task Force. Martha Crenshaw has secured a generous grant from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.