• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

The Endless War on Terror

Module description

This module will introduce you to scholarship in International Relations to understand the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 that sparked the Global War on Terror. In addition to understanding the origins of the war, you will investigate the enduring consequences of the Global War on Terror. Without question, the Global War on Terror has shaped everything from U.S. foreign policies and domestic institutions to civil liberties and pop culture. You will examine the events of 9/11 and assess the ramifications of the endless Global War on Terror on different states and communities around the world.

Module aims - intentions of the module

You will spend time interrogating U.S. policies from the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, as well as the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021. You will also examine reactions to those policies across both the global north and the global south.

Specifically, the module aims to:

• critically interrogate the origins and continuing effects of the Global War on Terror (GWOT)
• examine the radical changes ushered in by 9/11 and the GWOT
• evaluate how and to what extent the Global War on Terror changed international political dynamics between the US and both state and non-state actors in the Global North and Global South

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand the origins and effects of the Global War on Terror on both domestic and international politics
• 2. Demonstrate analytical skills necessary to critically assess narratives and discourses related to 9/11 and the Global War on Terror, and relevant policy decisions in response to and as part of these events

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Craft a polished qualitative research design
• 4. Apply theoretical approaches to new contexts in order to make sense of real world problems

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Develop collaboration skills within a group setting to =foster open dialogue and constructive debate, enabling a collective development of robust arguments and analyses.
• 6. Adapt information retrieval and evaluation, then demonstrate the ability to discern reliable information and critically evaluate its relevance to specific contexts.

Syllabus plan

The following outline is provisional to indicate the key areas to be covered in each week (subject to revision at the discretion of the module convenor):

• Introduction to the Endless War on Terror
• 9/11
• Aftermath & War In Afghanistan
• US Domestic (Ripple) Effects, part 1: The PATRIOT Act
• US Domestic (Ripple) Effects, part 2: Social & Institutional Changes
• War in Iraq, Wars in Peripheral States
• Torture & Detention
• The Obama Era
• The Trump Era
• Any End in Sight?

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

You will only be required to retake any failed assessments. Marks for any passed assessments will be carried forward. If you have failed any assessments but managed to pass the module overall, you will not be allowed to retake the failed assessments.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Gunning, J. (2007). A case for critical terrorism studies? 1. Government and opposition, 42(3), 363-393.
• Göl, Ayla (2010) Editor's introduction: views from the ‘Others’ of the War on Terror, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 3:1, 1-5.
• Horgan, John & Michael J. Boyle (2008) A case against ‘Critical Terrorism Studies’, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 1:1, 51-64, DOI: 10.1080/17539150701848225
• Leech, B. L. (2002). Interview methods in political science. PS-WASHINGTON-, 35(4), 663-664.
• Maxwell, J. A. (2012). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (Vol. 41).Ryan, Maria 2011. ‘War in countries we are not at war with’: The ‘war on terror’ on the periphery from Bush to Obama.
• Parashar, Swati (2013) What wars and ‘war bodies’ know about international relations, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 26:4, 615-630, DOI: 10.1080/09557571.2013.837429
• Rubin, B., & Rubin, J. C. (Eds.). (2002). Anti-American terrorism and the Middle East: A documentary reader. Oxford University Press
• Saito, N. T. (2002). Whose liberty-Whose Security-The USA PATRIOT Act in the context of COINTELPRO and the unlawful repression of political dissent. Or. L. Rev., 81, 1051.
• Sambanis, N. (2004). What is civil war? Conceptual and empirical complexities of an operational definition. Journal of conflict resolution, 48(6), 814-85
• Schmidt, Brian C. & Michael C. Williams (2008) The Bush Doctrine and the Iraq War: Neoconservatives Versus Realists, Security Studies, 17:2, 191-220
• Simone, Maria A.  (2009) Give me liberty and give me surveillance: a case study of the US Government's discourse of surveillance, Critical Discourse Studies, 6:1, 1-14
• Slahi, Mohamedou, 2015. Guantánamo Diary: The Fully Restored Text.
• Shepherd, Laura J.  (2006) Veiled references: Constructions of gender in the Bush administration discourse on the attacks on Afghanistan post-9/11, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 8:1, 19-41
• Suhrke, Astri (2012) Waging War and Building Peace in Afghanistan, International Peacekeeping, 19:4, 478-491.
• Thies, C. G. (2002). A pragmatic guide to qualitative historical analysis in the study of international relations. International Studies Perspectives, 3(4), 351-372.
• Tickner, J. (2002). Feminist perspectives on 9/11. International Studies Perspectives, 3(4), 333-350.

Key words search

International Relations; Security Studies; research methods