Professor James Hughes

Professor Hughes designed and teaches the flagship course in Conflict Studies at LSE: GV4A8: Nationalist Conflict, Political Violence and Terrorism, offered by the Department of Government, LSE.

How can we distinguish legitimate resistance and political violence from terrorism? What is the relationship between war and terror? What distinguishes a combatant from non-combatant? Do counterinsurgency methods based on force and the securitization of the state work? Should we erode civil liberties and democratic values to fight terrorism? What consequences follow from the prominent role of psychologists in the study of political violence and terrorism?

This course attempts to answer these and similar questions by a comparative examination of the theories and ethics of political violence and the root causes, nature and types, and dynamics of violence. This course also evaluates different political and security policies and methods of conflict resolution as change agents. A number of case studies of historical and contemporary conflicts are examined to illustrate the theoretical and policy dilemmas.

The course has two parts. Firstly, it critically examines the concept of political violence itself, the root causes and factors of radicalization in political violence, the ethical dilemmas involved in engaging in and managing political violence, the principles and efficacy of the laws and norms of armed conflict, repertoires of political violence, and the evolution from the era of decolonization of state counterinsurgency (COIN) and counterterrorism policies. Key motifs in COIN and counterterrorism will be examined including coercive versus cooperative approaches ("hearts and minds"), the spectrum of dealing with communal resistance from genocide to cooption, policies of criminalization, and the balance and trade offs that are made between security and liberty. Secondly, it explores the key issues and debates through a number of case studies that analyze political violence and terrorism in democracies and non-democracies, as well as the new transnational challenges posed by Al Qaeda.

Throughout the course comparisons will be made and lessons drawn from the performance of different regime types (colonial, democratic, transitional democratic, and authoritarian) in managing political violence.

Source: LSE