CT3 - Critical Thinking - Terrorism and perspective-taking

The goal of CT3 is that you practice the next components of critical thinking: * analyzing assumptions and biases * avoiding emotional reasoning * avoiding oversimplification You will be matched with another student with a different country/nation-state. You will each have researched a current or previous terrorist group (counter-hegemonic group) and the hegemony they opposed. Specifically, you should know the core cultural and political values that they hold most dear and are/were fighting to protect or gain. You will then use some creative license to imagine a fictitious debate between these 4 groups on the topic: ISIS is or isn't a terrorist group. I.e. you will also need to know what the ideology of ISIS, which was your assignment in AA17. So, in class today: research the ideology of a specific terrorist (or terrorist-like) group (excluding ISIS or Islamic State). You may choose a group from this list or use a group in the lecture powerpoint, which is on Pages. https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm research the ideology of the hegemonic power that this terrorist-like group you chose in number 1, opposes discuss with your partner the ideologies of these groups (the groups you research on number 1 and 2) imagine what these groups would say about whether ISIS is or isn't a terrorist group write a report (directions below): due April 28 Write a 400-500-word report answering these questions: 1. What are the two terrorist groups that you and your peer researched and what are the two hegemonic groups you and your peers researched? -terrorist group you chose: -hegemonic group you chose: -terrorist group your peer chose: -hegemonic group your peer chose: 2. How do you think the terrorist group of your selection would view ISIS? As a terrorist group or not? Explain why. 3. How do you think the terrorist group your peer selected would view ISIS? As a terrorist group or not? Explain why. 4. How do you think the hegemonic group, against which the terrorist group fights, would view ISIS? As a terrorist group or not? Explain why. 5. How do you think the hegemonic group, selected by your peer, would view ISIS? As a terrorist group or not? Explain why. 6. Perspective-taking is a powerful educational tool in order to build strong relationships. One of the main goals of this exercise is to practice the ability to speak from a different perspective and build arguments from that. After watching this clip about Captain Curtis's perspective-taking exercise: ISU class assignment: Write essay on 9/11 from terrorists’ perspective (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Loading media... Minimize embedded content You will spend 5 minutes or so arguing on behalf of the cause of your terrorist group. Choose three main arguments for this exercise. You will make these three arguments to the hegemonic group. Your peer will spend 5 minutes or so counter-arguing your point. Then you and your peer will reverse roles, with 5-minute argument and 5-minute counter-argument. You do NOT need to write this part on your report. Go to number 7. 7. Individual Reflection about the exercise: you and your peer, individually, will write a couple of paragraphs explaining what you learned from this exercise in terms of taking different perspectives. Some questions to consider: How did it make you feel, was it uncomfortable? Did you realize your own biases and assumptions towards a particular group? 8. Potential application: How this exercise of taking-perspective could be applied to counter-terrorism strategies? Note: I am not looking for the "right answer" here. This is an open question on how to apply what you learned with this perspective-taking exercise to counter-terrorism strategies. You might think that there is nothing to learn here as it relates to counter-terrorism, and that is fine as well.