Terrorism Studies

Terrorism Financing and Resourcing GPM426

An 8 point post-graduate subject delivered by the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security

Workload

We offer this subject online, with an approximate workload of 8 – 10 hours per week.

We also offer an optional 3-day classroom-based intensive class in Canberra. The times and dates of these classes vary by session.

To find out more, please email terrorismstudies@csu.edu.au.

This subject examines the various mechanisms by which terrorist organisations and networks raise, transfer, and expend funds. It considers the broader topic of terrorist resourcing and the acquiring and maintaining of intangible resources necessary for the operation of a terrorist enterprise. Financing and resourcing from both operational and organizational perspectives are addressed, as is the centrality of transnational criminal activity, along with the existing approaches to the countering of these practices, including financial intelligence.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:

Be able to demonstrate specialised knowledge of current terrorist financing practices
Demonstrate the capacity to research and analyse terrorist financing from local, regional, and international perspectives
Be capable of analysing and synthesising knowledge regarding historical and contemporary aspects of terrorist financing and resourcing
Be able to critically analyse and consider the countering of terrorist financing, at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels, and evaluate the complexity of terrorist financing
Be able to communicate an understanding of key counter terrorist financing policies and practices and undertake key approaches to policy evaluation, for a variety of audiences

Indicative assessment

Policy paper – 40%
Case study paper – 60%

Textbooks

The set text for this course is:

Shelley, L.I. (2014). Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gurule, J. (2009). Unfunding Terror: The Legal Response to the Financing of Global Terrorism, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Freeman, M. (2012). Financing Terrorism: Case Studies, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing.

Note that all of these texts offer something different and come at the subject from a different perspective, but all are by well-regarded experts in their field. Various chapters from these texts will readings within the subject, and will subsequently be made available electronically.

reading list extract

Vittori, J. (2011). ‘Terrorism Cannot Live on Idealism Alone,’ in Terrorism Financing & Resourcing, Palgrave Macmillan: Initiatives in Strategic Studies: Issues and Policies, pp. 13-25.
Freeman, M. (2011) ‘The Sources of Terrorist Financing: Theory and Typology,’ Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 34(6), 461-475.
Shelley, L. (2014). ‘The Logic of Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism’ & ‘The Business of Terrorism and the Criminal Financing of Terrorism,’ in Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism, Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-29 & 173-218.
Shapiro, J.N. (2013). ‘The Challenge of
Organizing Terror,’ in The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations, Princeton,
NY: Princeton University Press.

Terrorism Financing and Resourcing

GPM426