Terrorism: How Should We Respond?

This material is excerpted from Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy, a one-week curriculum unit developed by the Choices Program. A full description of this unit is available online.

Choices curricular resources are designed to be used in an interactive format that engages students in active consideration of historical and current background material and then places them in the role of decision-makers as they explore divergent policy alternatives. After exploring divergent views, students should deliberate together on the merits and tradeoffs of each. Finally, students should be given an opportunity to express their own considered judgments on future policy direction. We recommend that you use a similar approach to the resources posted here.

Resources

The Policy Options presented in this material are not intended as a menu of choices. Rather, they are framed in stark terms to highlight very different policy approaches, the values that underlie them, and the critiques. (Note: Critiques come from the perspective of supporters of the other Options.)

It is important that students understand that no one Option as it is framed here reflects the views of any one organization or national leader. It is the students' job to sort through the three Options, think about their concerns and values, discuss these with their peers, and then frame an "Option 5 " that reflects their own views.

DAY I—Preparation and Presentation of the Options

Break your class up into five groups. Assign four of the groups a Policy Option (one for each group). Assign the remaining group the role of the President and his advisors or of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Options Presenters: Their task will be to review their assigned Option, consider the values that underlie it as well as the tradeoffs involved, and then develop a short presentation to give to the class. This presentation should make the best possible case for this Option.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Their task will be to review each of the Options presented in the material and prepare clarifying questions to ask of the "advocates" of each Option after their presentation. The intent is to make sure that the Options, as they are written, are fully understood prior to deliberation on their merits, risks, and tradeoffs.

Foreign Representatives: If your class is large, you may want to assign some students the role of representatives of other nations. They can be asked to present their views on the Options after all of them have been presented.

DAY II—Shared Deliberation and Individual Judgment

With the Options presented and understood, students have a foundation for deliberation on the merits and the tradeoffs of each. Ultimately students will articulate their own perspective on the issue.

Deliberating on the Options: Begin your deliberation by asking students to identify the things they like and the things that concern them about each of the options presented. Encourage students to listen carefully to each other rather than to try to "win" the argument. The intent of deliberative discourse is to see that all perspectives are heard and considered and that all participants have a place at the table. The outcome should involve a more sophisticated understanding on the part of all participating. See Guidelines for Deliberation. You may also find Deliberating "Pros" and "Cons" of Policy Options a useful activity.

Articulating Their Own Views:After students have deliberated together on the merits and tradeoffs of the Options presented in this lesson, give all of the students an opportunity to come to terms with their own views on this issue. What should we do? Have them articulate their own considered judgments on the issue by framing their "Option 5 " using the format of the Options presented. As they develop their Option 5, students should consider the following questions:

  • What U.S. interests are at stake in this issue?
  • What values and interests should guide U.S. policy toward terrorism?
  • What do you think our long-term goals should be?
  • What steps should the United States take in the coming months and years?
  • Should the United States interact with other nations as it addresses the problem of terrorism? If so how?
  • What are the merits and tradeoffs of the option you are proposing?

Online Ballot: Terrorism: How should we respond? After consideration of this issue, we encourage students to make their views known. A report on student views will be developed..

Let Your Voice Be Heard:Encourage your students to express their views to elected officials. Students can find contact information for the White House at www.whitehouse.gov/contact and their U.S. Senators and their Representatives at thomas.loc.gov.

Additional Resources from the Choices Program

Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy is a one-week unit that helps students explore the threats to the United States, the motivations of terrorists, and the challenges for our international and domestic response. Background readings prepare students to thoughtfully consider the policy choices facing our country.

Are We Winning the War on Terrorism? asks students to consider whether and how the United States can determine the success or failure of our efforts to combat terrorism. This is available from Teaching with the News.

See Supplemental Resources for additional resources on this topic.