INSTRUCTIONS

1. Click on the "discussion forum" button on the IDL website;
2. Enter the login and password to access PanFora;
3. Click on "Enter the Form" link;
4. Click on the title IDL101;
5. Click on the week number;
6. Click on the abbreviation of your university;
7. Post your assignment answer by clicking on the "P" button.

All assignments will be graded according to the following essay grading rubric. Please familiarize yourself with this rubric.

WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS

Week 1: Lecture 1-2 (Due Monday, September 26, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please ANALYZE the following essay, using the Essay Grading Rubric.  The essay answers the following question:

1.      In her lecture, Dr. Donohue suggests that while the use of violence for political ends is thousands of years old, contemporary suicide-bombing and hostage-taking are profoundly modern acts.  Do you agree or disagree with this statement, and how would you argue your position? (Please draw on both the lectures and readings for this week to make your argument).

Week 2: Lecture 3-4 (Due Monday, October 3, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer only ONE of the following questions:

1. Choose one of the three case studies given by Martha Crenshaw and demonstrate the short- and long-term consequences of the U.S. “coercive diplomacy.” Is there a difference, if any, between coercive diplomacy and terrorism?
2. Answer the question Laura Donohue poses to her students: “Are rights more important than liberties? Should we be willing to give up the liberties, but not the rights, when fighting terrorism?”

Week 3: Lecture 5-6 (Due Monday, October 10, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer only ONE of the following questions:

1. Does terrorism present a fundamentally different challenge to mass media, compared to the challenge of war or crime reporting? If so, of what kind? If not, why?
2. What has prevented the civic defense model from becoming a dominant model of counter-terrorism in Western liberal democracies? How would a commitment to a civic defense model translate into specific policy decisions? (Use Held, Kaldor, and Lederman’s articles, as well as Donohue’s lecture, to answer these questions).

Week 4: Special Seminar on Chechnya and Lecture 7 (Due Monday, October 17, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer the following question:

1. In analyzing the events and processes that led up to the first Chechen War, Tishkov argues that Moscow first played the key role in the establishment of a radical-nationalist government in Chechnya in 1991-1994, and then refused to take responsibility for it.  Explain what Tishkov means here, and whether you find his argument convincing.

Week 5: Lectures 8-9. (Due Monday, October 24, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer only ONE of the following questions:

1.      In your opinion, does the success of the Good Friday agreement, secured through a referendum in both Northern and Southern Ireland, represent a case of civic defense model of counter-terrorism at work?

2.      What is the connection between 1922 Special Powers Act (SPA) and the 1973 Emergency Provisions Act in Northern Ireland? Why are these two pieces of legislation important for the history of conflict in Northern Ireland?

Week 6: MIDTERM

Week 7: Lecture 10-11 (Due Tuesday, November 8, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer only ONE of the following questions:

1. Donohue argues that when faced with terrorist threat, every branch of government tries to respond to the threat by introducing its own counter-terrorist measures.  Think of examples in the Russian context where different branches of power have responded differently (or in concert) to a terrorist threat or event.
2. Why do nationalist-secessionist movements tend to last, despite much opposition to them from nation-states?

Week 8: Lecture 12-13 (Due Monday, November 14, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer only ONE of the following questions:

1. What is the dual character of Zionism, as Beinin explains it? How does this dual character of Zionism helps to explain why Jews and Arabs have such disparate understandings of the history of the conflict?
2. What is the lasting significance of the Iranian Hostage Crisis on the U.S. counter-terrorist policy?  Why does Donohue call it “the most formative terrorist event in the U.S. history”?

Week 9: Lecture 14-15 (Due Monday, November 21, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer only ONE of the following questions:

1.      Why has the Bush Administration argued that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to terrorist suspects?  How convincing, in your view, has this argument been?

2.      Where does official Russia stand on the question of retributive vs. reformative justice? (Explain what those terms mean first; then give specific examples to illustrate your view. You may use any number of sources to generate examples, including the Memorial Group report from Lecture 12).

Week 10: Lecture 16-17 (Due Monday, November 28, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

Please answer only ONE of the following questions:

1. Are there circumstances when the use of military tribunals instead of civil courts might be justified for terrorism suspects?  What is “wrong” with traditional civil courts, according to proponents of military tribunals? How convincing is this argument?
2. What is “discourse” as social scientists understand it? What might be the domestic factors and institutions that help create groups in Chechnya that have a vested interest in the conflict continuing, rather than ending?  

Week 11: Lecture 18-19 (Due Monday, December 5, 12:00 midnight, Moscow Time)

1. Should the state’s response to bioterrorism be any different than a response to a public health crisis? Why?
2. Why is it very difficult to repeal counter-terrorist measures, which are originally introduced as “temporary”?

Week 12: Final Exam