Online Bachelor of Science (BS) in Counterterrorism

Earn an online bachelor's degree in counterterrorism, protect the nation's future

With a degree in counterterrorism studies you will be prepared to use advanced counterterrorism analytic skills to utilize cutting edge and practical knowledge and analytic tools to work in government agencies, intelligence, military, law enforcement, and the private sector to help them protect the nation, people, critical infrastructure, and businesses.

You will analyze terrorism in all its manifestations. This will range from the history and evolution of terrorism, root causes of terrorism, types of terrorism, psychology of terrorism, terrorism ideologies and agendas, radicalization into violent extremism, recruitment, how terrorists organize and operate (whether as groups or lone actors), the role of the Internet in terrorism, their tactics, the weapons they employ (ranging from conventional to weapons of mass destruction/cyber), their targeting patterns, attack incident patterns, metrics of programmatic effectiveness in counterterrorism (as well as in countering violent extremism), as well as methodologies to forecast the spectrum of potential terrorism warfare in the United States and internationally.  

The spectrum of possible solutions to terrorism will also be covered, including countering violent extremism and promoting the disengagement from terrorism, with methodologies drawn from the disciplines of homeland security, military studies, conflict resolution, and others.

These analytic skills will provide students with the capability to support counterterrorism efforts, ranging from detecting potential current terrorist activity in communities and on the Internet, how terrorists interact with one another, early warning methodologies to detect trajectory into violence, forecasting the range of future terrorist warfare at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels, as well as possible resolutions of domestic and foreign terrorist conflicts.

Supporting courses include critical thinking, statistics, computer science, process of intelligence and intelligence analytic methods, homeland security and critical infrastructure protection, cyber security, conflict resolution, and others.

Utilizing the university’s robust distance learning platform, the courses will be self-paced, with weekly assignments. They will be highly interactive between instructors and students, including posting videos of incidents to frame class discussion and conducting “virtual” field trips to counterterrorism points of interest on the Internet.

This program’s courses will be offered completely online, in an 8 week format.