This week, we take a closer look at nonstate actors, which come in several flavors- the good (NGOs?), the potentially bad (MNCs?) and the definitely bad (terrorists and transnational criminal organizations).  If you thought defining war last week was challenging, terrorism is even more complicated.  A basic definition includes 3 components: violence, targeting civilians, for political purposes, but as we will discuss in class, even these are contested/don’t fit all circumstances.  The third facet of the definition, “political purposes” is important for distinguishing transnational crime from terrorism- transnational crime’s goal is usually money or financial gain, and is not political in purpose.  Yet it is not uncommon to see transnational criminal activity linked to terrorism and vice-versa.  This week, you will think about what terrorism and transnational crime are, where they come from, what challenges they present to the international system, and what states can do to counter or reduce both of these phenomenon.  

As you work through this week’s readings, you can use the slides to help guide you (just remember, they’re a supplement to, and not a substitute for your reading!).   Try to explore the START Database and the Terrorism Visualizations from Our World in Data (don’t forget to click “Sources” on each visualization, so you can see where they got their data!)

Several of you have submitted meme assignments- well done! Everyone should read all of the meme assignments, as they are a great learning experience (and quite funny as well!). If you haven’t done the meme assignment yet, but would like to- you are most welcome to do so- the due dates are suggested, but flexible, so you can do your best work and best learning at the time it works best for you.

In addition to your regularly scheduled reading, class participation, and blogging, don’t forget to take your Midterm Exam from 12:01am April 5 to 11:59pm April 7 (if you’re choosing to take the midterm, that is).  The exam is open-book, untimed, and you may take it as many times as you like while it is open.  The design of the exam is made to maximize learning through the process (and minimize stress).  I hope you will learn through the experience, so use your course resources (your reading, class notes, collaborative class notes, and slides) to confirm your choices (random Google is NOT your friend for this test).  I am requiring and expecting you all to work independently- I’ve tried to remove incentives to sharing the test questions/answers by designing the test as optional, open-book, and multiple attempt, and I am trusting you to do your best work on your own.

A note on blogging, and how you should get moving on it if you can:

There has been some excellent blogging going on so far this semester! Thoughtful posts that engage with our readings and course topics in ways I wouldn’t have even thought to do! If you’re blogging, keep up the good work! If you haven’t started yet, please get to it! Your self-grading assessment for the first half of blogging will be due next week, so you’ve got this week and next week to catch up on the first half of blog posts. Please note: your learning by engaging with our course materials and other scholarly sources that interest you is the point of writing the blog posts! So don’t stress yourself out or rush to write garbage that you learn nothing from (or resort to asking AI to write garbage for you)- If you only get a two posts up before next week, you’re welcome to give yourself partial credit for the first half, and then do better in the second half. You’ve got this!!!

I hope this is another excellent week of learning for you, and if I can be of any assistance, please feel free to email me.