Terrorism and Organized Crime

Course coordinator: Krzysztof Kozłowski, PhD

Course delivery: 30 hours

Office hours: Friday, 15.15-16.15 (Wiśniowa Street 41, room 66)

e-mail: [e-mail]

Brief Description:

The course is designed to introduce students to the problems concerning terrorism and organized crime from the perspective of political sciences. The major purpose of the course is to give the overview of political approaches to the threats posed by international terrorism and criminal organizations. Each class will be concentrated on practical implications of the discussed issues. To make subject accessible and interdisciplinary, classes will involve analysis of actual cases in a way accessible not only for students of law, international relations and political sciences. Works of W. Shakespeare and F. Dostoyevsky will be also used to introduce students to the European approach to the discussed issues.

The program was developed in cooperation with UN International Center for Crime Prevention in Vienna and UN .

Content:

1. Political analysis of crime - criminological mainstreams, main approaches and definitions of organized crime and of terrorism, question of political choice between freedom and security.

2. What do we know about crime - media, statistics, interpretations and reality.

3. Why crime is universal - political and economic models of crime, social infrastructure of crime.

4. Regional differences - models of organized criminal behavior (USA, Post-Soviet organized crime).

5. Regional differences - models of organized criminal behavior (Japan, China, Poland as an example of organized crime in transition countries).

6. Organized crime and terrorism - similarities and differences.

7. Terrorism, terror and criminal terror - terrorism and warfare, state and terrorism, narcoterrorism.

8. Terrorist threats - weapons of mass destruction, relations between terrorism and fundamentalism, introduction to anti-terrorism measures

9. Fighting crime, fighting terror - what is common, what is different?

10. American and European understanding of crime - legal context of interpretation of criminal behavior, main differences and controversies.

11. Justice, freedom and security - European approach to organized crime and terrorism.

12. Crime and political campaigns - American and Russian political approaches to organized crime and terrorism.

13. War on drugs, war on terror - paradoxes of fighting crime and terrorism.

14. Organized crime and terrorism in international relations - a political problem or a tool of politicians?

15. The future of organized crime and terrorism.

Substantial Readings:

J.S. Nye, Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History, Harvard Univ., 8^th Edition, 2009.

V. Ruggiero, N. South, I.R. Taylor, The New European Criminology: Crime and Social Order in Europe, Routledge, 2005.

A.C. Stephens, N. Vaughan-Williams, Terrorism and the Politics of Response, Routhledge, 2010.

UN Office for Drugs and Crime home page http://www.unodc.org/unodc/index.html?ref=menutop

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course the student should:

1. be able to make difference between terrorist and organized criminal activity present in various parts of the world

2. reconstruct modes of thought in contemporary political processes concerning terrorism and organized crime

3. understand the political background and the complexity of war on drugs, war on terror etc.

---