The purpose of this assignment is to further explore concepts covered throughout the semester, and to apply the concepts to a real world situation, either in the country you have been studying or another country of your choosing.

PROMPT:

• Choose ANY recent or historical example of political violence (defined as “politically motivated violence outside of state control,” O’Neill p. 208)
• Which explanation is most appropriate for this specific act of political violence? (institutional, ideational, or individual explanation)
• What is the regime type of the state in which this act of violence occurred? How has the state responded to the violence? What does the response say about the strength of the state? (autonomy and capacity)

REQUIREMENTS:

Sources

• You must use the textbook.
• You must also use at least two other academic, governmental, and/or media sources.
• Academic journals, major national or international newspapers, major online news organizations, databases, etc.
• You may not use Wikipedia or other websites of unknown or inexpert origin. If you are not sure of the quality or reliability of a source, either ask Professor to evaluate it or do not use it.

Formatting

• This essay should be approximately 3 pages, typed, double-spaced, in a standard 12 point font.
• Cite your sources according to the style you know best (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)
• You must directly cite sources in text as appropriate as well as in a works cited/bibliography.

Submitting Assignment

• Please note that essays will be analyzed by the Turnitin plagiarism detection software. Your goal should be to aim for a ‘similarity score’ of less than 35%; essays with scores higher than 35% will draw extra scrutiny, although may not be deemed problematic so long as all sources are cited properly.