Threat Assessment: Anticipating Terrorism & Targeted Attacks examines how structured assessment can help identify and mitigate threats before violence occurs. Rather than attempting to predict the future or relying on profiles, this course focuses on systematically evaluating behaviors, vulnerabilities, and risk factors to support informed prevention and intervention.
Drawing on real-world cases and evidence-based frameworks, learners explore the foundational concepts of threat, vulnerability, and risk and how these concepts interact across national, homeland, and organizational security contexts. The course examines how to conduct and integrate threat and vulnerability analyses, avoid common assessment pitfalls, and connect assessment findings to organizational strategy. Learners also consider the importance of multidisciplinary teams, structured reporting processes, and coordinated action in preventing harm.
Led by Dr. Steve Sin, Director of the Unconventional and Asymmetric Threats Division at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), this course offers an interdisciplinary approach that connects behavioral threat assessment with broader security and risk analysis.
No technical background is required—just curiosity and a desire to better understand how terrorism and targeted violence can be recognized, assessed, and prevented before harm occurs.
(What you'll learn)
• Explain how threats, vulnerabilities, and risk interact across security contexts.
• Apply threat and vulnerability assessment principles to evaluate terrorism and targeted violence risks.
• Translate assessment findings into effective prevention and organizational security strategies.