Spring 2027

Terrorism

Examines the causes, goals, and strategies of terrorism, its consequences, and government counterterrorism policies.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Andrew Kydd

Readings were crucial for the final exam, and students reported a 4,000-word term paper with ample time to complete it.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Compare alternative definitions of terrorism.

  • Recall the history of terrorism, including prominent groups, ideologies and campaigns.

  • Describe the state of terrorism today, including currently active groups and ideologies inspiring terrorist attacks.

  • Categorize the motivations, strategies and tactics of terrorism.

  • Analyze the effectiveness of terrorism in achieving its goals in a variety of cases.

  • Evaluate the effectiveness, cost, legality and morality of counter terrorism policies, both military and non-military.

  • Analyze quantitative data related to terrorism to test a hypothesis on its correlates, causes or consequences.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing and (POLI SCI 104, 120, 140, 182,INTL ST 101, or LEGAL ST/​POLI SCI 217) or graduate standing

POLISCI 347

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANDREW KYDD is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Andrew Kydd

Students described this class as solid and interesting, noting that lectures were not mandatory and many skipped them.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2020: 3.39 GPA, 69.7% A/AB (n=218 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.06 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=98 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.32 GPA, 64.0% A/AB (n=136 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Andrew Kydd

Readings were crucial for the final exam, and students reported a 4,000-word term paper with ample time to complete it.

Past student reviews · Andrew Kydd

One student found the tests difficult, stating they were based on minute details and that class averages were 50%.

Topics

  • Causes, goals, and strategies of terrorist groups
  • Consequences of terrorism and counterterrorism policies

Skills

  • Comparing alternative definitions of terrorism
  • Recalling the history of terrorism, including groups, ideologies, and campaigns
  • Analyzing quantitative data related to terrorism to test hypotheses

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "ceded2fb830d7d71daedbea39103b786a5591e55b7214433149893f60db76e0e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}