Round four: Research links
Below you will find some useful links to get your research underway for round four.
"Without a 'war on poverty', terrorism cannot be defeated."
What is terrorism? Who are terrorists? And what are the causes of terrorism?
Oneworld.net guide to terrorism
This Terrorism Research site collates information on terrorism from various sources but strangely it doesn't cite them, and there is no information available on the authors.
Research Tip 1: Always be careful when reading anything, be it a book, newspaper article or website to consider who is writing it, what their motivation is and what their perspective on the issue is. (NB. You would lose marks if you didn't cite your sources in the Concern Debates, and if you wrote an essay in college without citing your sources you would automatically fail!)
A wiki on terrorism from wikipedia
Research Tip 2: As mentioned above you should always think critically about what you are reading. To think critically doesn't mean to criticise in the everyday meaning of ‘give out about' but rather to analyse and evaluate something. Wikepedia is an online encyclopedia where anyone, including you or me, can add an article, or edit what has already been written. And as you know from debating, people do not always take a neutral position on issues. So be careful not to believe everything you see written in a wiki without checking it out in other sources too.
Site of the US based Terrorism Research Center
Series of papers on the causes of terrorism from the Club de Madrid
Research Tip 3 - not to be used as an excuse to do less work - if you have to read a long article but you are not sure if it is relevant to you, start off by reading the introduction and the conclusion, because good authors will sum up their main arguments or key points here. Also keep an eye out for any sub-headings or sections within the article because sometimes you will only need to read one section to find what you are looking for (this doesn't work in newspaper articles because the sub-headings are often placed randomly for layout purposes!). And always read with a question in mind - for example reading this article you could ask ‘What do the authors think are the main causes of terrorism'. This will stop you being distracted by other interesting but irrelevant facts.
From an American NGO World Prosperity who try to understand the root causes of social problems.
From the BBC: Who is a terrorist?
This lesson plan from the US Public Broadcasting Service has an article and video clips about the links between terrorism and religion and a list of links to resources about terrorism in the Middle East and South Africa.
From the New York Times: Profile of a terrorist
An article by Kofi Annan on the roots of terrorism
From the New York Times: Who wants to be a martyr?
The war on terror
US Department of Homeland Security
US Whitehouse official website - you can find links to speeches by George Bush here.
UK Home Office Counter terrorism strategy
UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office International Priorities - with links to how the UK feels it can and should respond to international terrorism.
BBC special report on the ‘War on terror'
The European response to terrorism
Linking terrorism and poverty
From BBC news - Poverty Fuelling Terrorism
Examining the connections between poverty and terrorism by the Hoover Institute
From Business Week: The Myth that Poverty Breeds Terrorism
UN Report - In Larger Freedom - which looks at how the UN can tackle the big picture of security, development and human rights
The EU's security strategy, ‘A Secure Europe in a Better World'
A report on Development and Terrorism looking at Northern Ireland, the Philippines and Israel/Palestine
OECD report on development co-operation and terrorism
An article by the President of the World Bank
About.com article linking terrorism and poverty
A war on poverty?
The Millennium Development Goals
Gordon Brown calls for a war on poverty and again
Jeffrey D. Sachs ‘The End of Poverty'. Also have a look at his website
80:20 Development in an Unequal World, edited by Colm Regan (available to purchase from Concern for €25), especially Chapter 5 ‘The Politics of Development', Chapter 13 ‘Arms, conflict and development' and Chapter 16 ‘Identity and Development'
Terrorism and ideology, religious motivation, and power.
Terrorism caused by fundamentalism - from an Israeli news site
Chris Patten's recent lecture on Democracy and Terrorism (4 Dec 2007) - looking at Islamic terrorism but also Irish and Japanese terrorism among others.
Notes from a course on ethno-nationalistic terrorism around the world.
An article by Fred Halliday, a renowned International Relations scholar, which puts current terrorism in historical perspective
A World Security Institute article on non-Islamic terrorism
Samuel P. Huntington ‘The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order'
This book argues that the ideological differences between civilizations are the cause of conflict including terrorism. It was first published as an article in the journal ‘Foreign Affairs' in the Summer 2003 issue, and then expanded into a book.
Fareed Zakaria ‘The Future of Freedom' particularly Chapter 4 ‘the Islamic Exception'.
Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies ‘Why do people hate America?' - Not all of this book is relevant to the debate but it does give insight into some of the ideological and political reasons that some terrorists use to justify their actions.
Gore Vidal ‘Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace' - this book is interesting because as well as Islamic Terrorism it looks at a home-grown American terrorist, Timothy Mc Veigh.
