Undergraduate Certificate in Terrorism Studies

This course introduces the student to the relationships between intelligence and homeland security strategy. The course utilizes a historical case study approach, analyzing both past and contemporary national security issues from an intelligence perspective to highlight the increasingly important role intelligence has played and will play in the homeland security strategy process. The course presents the evolving relationship between intelligence and homeland security strategy during the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the Cold War because of the lessons to be learned from that period.

Students in this course study and analyze Counterintelligence focusing on both U.S. and foreign counterintelligence, including the evolution of counterintelligence, perspectives on covert action since World War II, principles of covert action and deception, and assessments of successes and failures of counterintelligence. The student will be required to study a range of books and articles on this topic and will develop a comprehensive knowledge of counterintelligence, how intelligence agencies in the United States use counterintelligence and covert action to guard U.S. global interests and protect U.S. national security from adversaries. In addition, students will study how counterintelligence is collected and how modernization and technology affect these weapons of war.

IS420 examines Intelligence & Assassination. The course evaluates intelligence in general, two major Intelligence Services, and a diverse range of so called ‘black operations’ case studies in the context of national security, economic and corporate interests, which have culminated in the ultimate sanction – assassination. The course then moves on to examine the most prolific and persistent form of assassination – that of sustained death squad activity, with case studies of: Germany (Weimar Republic), Spain, Punjab, Kashmir, Argentina, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Uganda, Northern Ireland, Indonesia, East Timor, Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Serbia.

This is a fundamental course to provide the student with the tools to develop an understanding of interrogation and practical interrogation skill. The course will focus on the interrogator and the subjects of interrogation. Specific issues of the course include behavioral, verbal, environmental, and legal aspects of interrogation.

The rapid increase in multinational analysis and transnational organized crime, corporate drug trafficking organizations, and the impact of crime on national and international policy has created a critical need for law enforcement intelligence experts in the relatively new field of criminal intelligence. The course provides the student with an introduction to the methods and techniques of criminal intelligence analysis and strategic organized crime. It will demonstrate how to predict trends, weaknesses, capabilities, intentions, changes, and warnings needed to dismantle criminal organizations. Law enforcement professionals at the federal, state, and local level, criminal intelligence analysts working in private industry, and military intelligence personnel making a transition from a military to a law enforcement career will benefit from this course. Students will be introduced to techniques such as association and link analysis, visual investigative analysis (VIA), telephone toll analysis, matrix analysis, reporting and application to violent crime, and organized crime to include drug, white collar, and money laundering. This course emphasizes criminal intelligence as opposed to criminal investigation.

The student will explore computer information warfare and its military applications. The course will review the role of computers and the Internet in training cyber warriors – both civilian and military – for future cyber warfare. Students will develop offensive strategies and applications of cyber warfare. Students will assess and evaluate different methodologies to bring about the desired impacts on the opponent as well as U.S. critical infrastructure protection from rogue nations and network-centric terrorist groups.

This course examines terrorism as a social and political instrument from past to present. Topics include Latin American influences on terrorism, origins of Middle Eastern terrorism, Osama Bin Laden & Al Qaeda, U.S. domestic terrorism issues, counter terrorism, homeland security, national & domestic intelligence resources against terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and future issues on terrorism.

This course assesses the impact of terrorism on U.S. national security. It focuses on a variety of aspects related to U.S. policy on terrorism, the threat of terrorism to U.S. national security, and the problems inherent to U.S. counterterrorism. The student will develop a comprehensive understanding of how the U.S. views terrorism, how various policies affect outcomes of counterterrorism, strengths and weaknesses in policy and strategies, threats to U.S. national security, and suggestions for solutions to these threats.

Modern criminal business, to include drug trafficking, trafficking in people or weapons, gold and precious gem smuggling, and even terrorism are reliant on how such activities are funded. Without some form of funding, illicit actors and illicit behaviors would have difficulty existing. This course will explore the shadowy world of illicit finance, from money laundering to Hawalas, to fraud, trade, and corruption used to fund illicit actions.

This course examines the processes involved in forecasting terrorism. The syllabus examines terrorism in general, actual and planned cases of chemical and biological weapons, and improvised weapons of mass destruction. It continues by differentiating the varying magnitudes of threat and effect of nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical and high explosive weapons, and analyzes terrorist precedent, strategy & psychology, from which terrorism forecasts and counter-terrorism activities are generated. It moves on to examine traditional and newer methods of forecasting terrorism: Intuition-based; profiling; conflict vulnerability analysis & prognosis (early warning); Atypical Signal Analysis & Processing (ASAP), and the Khalsa systematic Indications & Warning (I&W) methodology. It concludes with a brief overview of less conventional and known Military & Intelligence forecasting programs such as AMP (Anomalous Mental Phenomena): Remote Viewing and Psycho-kinesis (electron movement).

This course is an introduction to terrorist cults and personalities. Studies focus on a variety of aspects related to terrorist organizations and individuals. Course content will cover a variety of aspects related to terrorist organizations and individuals, including Osama bin Laden, Sinn Fein, and Hizballah.