Educational Media Reviews Online

Canadian human rights scholar Michael Ignatieff, of the Carr Center for Human Rights, addresses the political ethics of confronting terrorism in this audio recording of the 2003 Gifford Lectures. Ignatieff provides a balanced and thoughtful discussion of terrorism; he is clearly someone who can see both sides of a conflict. His training as a historian is evident in his use of case studies from around the globe and his close attention to the context of each.

Ignatieff is to be commended for giving an objective definition of terrorism (attacking non-combatant civilians for a political goal), which allows the discussion to begin. The clear thinking continues from there. This is not to say one must agree with him; just that the quality of the discussion is high. Ignatieff draws clarifying distinctions, points out recurring features, and distills lessons when possible.

Each of the five CDs is approximately an hour long. The technical quality is very good; the lectures and the questions at the end of each are clearly audible.

It’s hard to see a classroom use for these lectures. Each lecture builds on the last, so it’s not possible to choose just one, unless it be the first one, which is not where the most interesting material is. On top of that, Ignatieff’s observations, though clearly presented, are complex enough that it’s probably worth listening to each lecture a second time. Quite a bit of background knowledge is assumed, so only classes with some knowledge of the Palestinian-Israeli struggle, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, the ETA, Weimar Germany and so forth would really benefit. That said, this set would be a great resource for students and faculty to check out from the library. (One could also purchase the book that came out of these lectures: The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror.)

Highly recommended for libraries supporting classes in politics or terrorism.