The “New Approaches to Countering Terror: Countering Violent Extremism” course offered by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), is a multi-week interactive course designed to help students explore both pragmatic and philosophical challenges that continue to shape the evolution of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), a global security paradigm. START, a Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence and research, training, and education center housed at the University of Maryland within the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS), serves as a leading voice in the national and international dialogue regarding CVE. START’s Director and the course instructor, Bill Braniff, will introduce the concept of CVE and explore the promise of CVE as a more comprehensive and proactive approach to the complex phenomenon of violent extremism.

This 3.5 hour course will take an in-depth look at CVE as a relatively new area of policy and practice. As such, this MOOC can serve as an awareness-raising course, targeting anyone interested in terrorism, community resilience, security, policy and/or civil rights issues. The course is broadly interdisciplinary and has no prerequisites. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: 1. Differentiate between two ways of addressing violent extremism: counterterrorism (CT) and Countering Violent Extremism (CVE); 2. Explain the CVE spectrum of non-violent approaches to countering terror, including prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation/reintegration programs; 3. Make sound analytical judgments about CVE programs and their potential.