IR4587 Hunting The Lone Wolf: The Rise of Isolated Assassins and Terrorists
Academic year
2024 to 2025 Semester 1
Curricular information may be subject to change
Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.
Key module information
SCOTCAT credits
30
SCQF level
SCQF level 10
Planned timetable
Tuesday 1pm - 2pm
Module coordinator
Dr T K Wilson
Module Staff
Dr Timothy Wilson
Module description
A puzzling feature of recent political violence has been the prominence of lone attackers: individuals who strike in isolation, but proclaim loyalty to some wider ideology or cause. This phenomenon is frequently treated merely as a contemporary security nightmare. But it is older than often assumed: and this module traces the emergence of lone assassins and terrorists over 500 plus years. Between overview sessions (intro. and conc.), it adopts a biographical approach. Each week will take an individual case study as a ‘portrait in a landscape’. Cases are selected that are well-documented. This allows students some access to the attacker’s own thought-world; as well as to contemporaries’ reactions to their unexpected actions. From this close-up focus, we will step back to consider much wider questions. What is the changing relationship of lone attackers to wider society? What role does ‘toxic masculinity’ play in creating them? And how do communications revolutions encourage them?
Relationship to other modules
Pre-requisites
BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS IR2006
Assessment pattern
Coursework - 100%
Re-assessment
Written examination - 100%
Learning and teaching methods and delivery
Weekly contact
1 X 1 hour lecture and 1 X 1 hour tutorial per week.
Scheduled learning hours
21
Guided independent study hours
275
Intended learning outcomes
- Critically assess the concept of the 'lone wolf' terrorist
- Understand the key insights of social psychology on forces driving individual radicalization
- Explain, with examples, how individuals have become lone actor terrorists
- Identify the historical macro-conditions that encourage the proliferation of lone actor attackers
- Critically assess the role of toxic masculinity as one driver of lone actor terrorism