The Global War on Terrorism

This course presents an historical assessment of the GWOT from the perspective of its major participants: militant, Salafi Islamists, especially al-Qaeda and its affiliates and offshoots including ISIS, and the nation states that oppose them, namely, the United States and its allies. It seeks to answer such questions as what is militant Islamism and how has it interpreted jihad to justify committing terrorist acts in the name of restoring the caliphate? What is the nature of the GWOT and how has it become the new rubric of war in the 21st century? We cover the rise of militant, Sunni Islamism in Egypt during the 1960s and '70s, Islamic jihad in Afghanistan during the 1980s, the origins of "al-Qaeda" in 1988, jihad in Bosnia, Chechnya, Algeria, and Sudan during the 1990s, al-Qaeda terrorist attacks against the U.S. during the 1990s, 9/11 and the Bush Doctrine, the war against the Taliban and the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001-02, and the subsequent spread of Islamic jihad in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North and East Africa, Western Europe, and the United States, and the respective nation states' responses. The course concludes with an analysis of the current state and likely future of the GWOT. Just how long will this conflict last, and in what ways, how and why is it likely to end?

Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; BU IS; AS HUM; AS LCD; FA HUM; AR HUM

The Global War on Terrorism

HISTORY 3073

Section 01

Section 02