Hi, this is Dr. Kate Isaac. I'm back to give you an introduction to our first module. As we begin our course: Understanding Terrorism & The Terrorist Threat, I want to remind you of the overall course structure and give you a sense of how this module fits into the larger course. We're now beginning Module one: How do we study terrorism, in which our goal is to introduce ourselves, The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism or START at the University of Maryland, and the way we think about issues relating to terrorism. As a reminder, this is the first of five modules. Here, we'll set you up with a foundation for the rest of the course, which will subsequently follow with the unit on Individual Radicalization, a unit on Terrorist Group Dynamics and a unit on Terrorist Operations. Followed by a module focusing on Al-Qaeda as a case study illustrating many of the concepts we'll cover in earlier modules. In this module, we'll present to you a single overarching idea. We want to argue in this set of videos that multi-disciplinary, that is, studies influenced by multiple academic disciplines and empirically-based, that is, studies that offer observable evidence approaches to studying terrorism are critical. And they're critical, we'll argue, for students to move beyond emotionally charged rhetoric to thoughtful and engaging disclose. Dr. LaFree's opening lectures will discuss the Black Swan concept, the irregular but highly publicized event like 9/11 that creates stereotypes or misunderstandings about the nature of terrorism. Dr. LaFree will describe for us a series of these misunderstandings or myths, as he calls them, painting a misshape in public perception of terrorism as a landscape of well-established, long lasting and effective terrorist groups using sophisticated weaponry to carry out high profile attacks with many fatalities. In short, a landscape of Al-Qaeda linked groups carrying out 9/11-like attacks. Dr. LaFree will then utilize a series of findings from studies our researchers have conducted using our global terrorism database to refute this image, and to help create a more dynamic and nuanced view of global terrorism plans for you that is shaped by these empirical data that we have spent many years collecting, editing and analyzing. Mr. Braniff will follow Dr. LaFree and discuss something we all know to be true that terrorism is a difficult subject to study. That it is an emotional and polarizing topic, and the kinds of myths perpetuated by Black Swan events present serious challenges for the scientific study of terrorism as a phenomenon. So we'll spend this module talking about two important themes. The first is the idea that terrorism is a complex and nuanced topic that requires careful study and discussion. Second is the importance of empirical data that is evidence that can be verified by observation or experience to support the analysis of terrorism. On the first point, the need to carefully study terrorism, Mr. Braniff, Dr. Bird of NATO, and Mr. Jason Blazakis of the US State Department, will all discuss the question of defining terrorism and the struggles people often have with doing it successfully. But Mr. Braniff and Mr. Hyslop of the Institute for Economics and Peace will discuss definitions currently in use both by the Global Terrorism Database and the Global Terrorism Index. We'll hold a number of discussions relating to definitions on the discussion forums. We have one discussion forum currently open in which we encourage you to discuss whether you think it is important to establish a uniformly accepted definition of terrorism. On the second major point of this module, the need to collect and analyze empirical data to conduct social scientific studies of terrorism. Mr. Braniff will introduce the notion that social scientific study of terrorism is relatively new, where we have many examples of excellent scholarship from the humanities and terrorism specifically from the discipline of history. The study of terrorism within social sciences was relatively untouched when START first opened its doors in the years following 9/11. As Mr. Braniff and Dr. Lafree will explain, START has spent 10 years working to pave the way for collection of empirical social science data on terrorism and social scientific analyses of those data. You will hear in this module about a lot of that work. We'll present statistical analyses of terrorism data to you throughout this course, but we will focus in particular during this module on providing you with a good baseline understanding of a series of global trends and patterns on terrorism from the past four decades or so. All of this module's speakers and our plan discussion forums hit at a single underlying point, the perceptions of terrorism can vary from individual to individual and group to group, depending on their experiences, their histories, interests and biases. It can vary depending on the most available and recent media coverage of terrorism and related topics, and it can vary on the conversations that we hold. Part of our goal in putting together this course is to support START's mission of providing, disseminating and fostering discussion on empirical data on terrorism. Part of our goal in putting together this course is also to help create well informed consumers of terrorism-related news, terrorism-related research, and terrorism-related practice and policy. We hope this module provides the baseline for several more weeks of engaged study and discussion.
