This was an interesting class. For the most part, it consisted of guest lecturers - folks with field experience - coming in to talk. As always with this type of get up, some were fantastic and others less so (although all were worthwhile). There are a couple of papers, which are straightforward. If you're interested in the topic, I recommend taking it.

Not too bad a class. Really good guest lectures every week with plenty of Q&A. I would say about 20% of the guests were extremely good, the other 80% were alright, but none were ever bad. I learned a ton in this class, but mostly about the vulnerabilities we have to terrorism, not necessarily about methods or motives, or really even its history. This sets you up pretty nicely for the final paper, though. My only complaint is the grading was a little inconsistent, even if you speak to the professor and TA during office hours. Nonetheless, the workload is light, and with a bit of effort, an A isn't hard to pull off, especially if you participate.

Without a doubt the most interesting and enjoyable class I have taken at UCLA. The class consisted of simple weekly assignments, a midterm paper, and a final paper. The class meetings consisted of guest lectures from a variety of fields so you have to participate here and there if you want credit. The overall workload is quite light and the paper topics he gave us were really enjoyable and writing them was quite straightforward. Grading was also incredibly fair. Katona even offered students the option of creating an infographic for extra credit and allowed us to work in small groups for the final project.