Mid-Level Certificate in Counterterrorism

This mid-level certificate is designed  for the professional who already has some experience in the counterterrorism field or the student who has taken the entry level certificate to further understand the strategies and tactics terrorist groups employ to achieve their aims as well as the role of the international community in defining terrorism, controlling the supply of money and weapons and developing and implementing an active international counterterrorism policy. Students will learn about the diversity of identities and motivations credited with sponsoring or conducting terrorism. Students will discuss current issues surrounding reliability of CT information and dissemination thresholds, and analytical implications of alleged detainee abuse and disinformation campaigns by insurgents. And finally, students in this program will acquire the tools necessary to identify and evaluate the variety of structures of terrorist organizations, from strict hierarchy to diffuse networks, as well as the implications of structure and internal dynamics on terrorist actions and capabilities.

Outcomes

Upon completion of this certificate, students will be able to do the following:

• Research and define terrorism and its genesis, stages, and characteristic features.
• Distinguish the different types of terrorist motivations including left-wing, right-wing, ethno-nationalist, and religious.
• Assess and explain the threat from specific types of terrorism including state-sponsored, suicide, and CBRN using analytical tools common in counterterrorism analysis.
• Analyze the workings of a domestic (United States) terrorist group in order to classify and distinguish the different dynamics at work in these types of groups.
• Identify and explain in well-developed presentations or well-written documents to stakeholders the psychology, motivation, and behavioral traits that distinguish a terrorist group.

Course availability is subject to minimum class size requirements.