In the latter portion of the course we are going to consider a number of contemporary issues in international relations. Some of them are extremely broad (international political economics, war), others are just somewhat extremely broad (nuclear proliferation, terrorism). Either way, we are only going to scratch the surface of these issues. I would like to give you an opportunity to dig a little deeper into some issue in contemporary international relations. In this assignment I ask you to pick a topic of interest – it could be something like a specific event (a war between two countries, a nonmilitary conflict like Iran’s potential nuclear weapons, etc.) or something broader but thematic (global warming, the economic crisis). The key is going to be picking a topic that is narrow enough to deal with in an 2500-3000 word paper (that’s roughly 10 to 12 pages). Once you have your topic, you should use the paper to answer the following questions about it:
1) Give a BRIEF summary of your topic. What are the major relevant details about the subject? This should be NO MORE THAN 1000 WORDS. That’s why you need to narrow your topic before you sit down to write your paper.
2) Are there any relevant international agreements about your topic? Has the United Nations or other IGO’s dealt with your topic? What NGO’s are active in this area and what are their goals?
3) Who are the (most) relevant countries? What are their interests or goals as regards your topic? Go beyond just restating what you said in Question 1.
4) Analyze your topic from a realist and liberal perspective. How would each approach explain the way countries and individuals have behaved in your topic?
5) What is the future of your topic?
Below I will provide you with a list of possible topics. You can always choose something off the list but you might want to run it by me first. Before getting to that, I thought I’d give you all a heads up that I’ve received quite literally dozens of papers on Somali pirates, global warming, the crisis in Darfur and the drug trade/drug war. You can still do those topics (I always encourage people to do things that interest them) but I thought you’d want to know that going into it.
A list of possible topics might include: regime change in North Korea, the Russia-Georgia crisis, the war in Afghanistan, Iran (or North Korea) and nuclear proliferation, the Doha Round of international trade agreements, NAFTA, Security Council reform, anything to do with the recent the GLOBAL economic crisis (i.e. not domestic) such as the European debt crisis, global poverty, development in the global South, AIDS or any other epidemic (but focus on the international relations of it and not the science), the looming demogaphic crisis in economically developed countries, immigration INTERNATIONALLY (i.e. not specifically about the US), water access, technology in the global age, etc.
You can structure your paper any way you see fit, so long as you address the above questions. I would suggest breaking your paper down into an introduction in which you outline the rest of the paper, five separate sections (each dealing with a question) and a conclusion, to match the attached rubric. Make sure to read the rubric at the end of the paper assignment for guidance on what each section should contain.
Formatting
The total length of the paper is 3500 to 4000 words. That is roughly 10 to 12 double-spaced pages with normal font and margins. Please put the word count on the front page of your paper. Pretty much every word processing program has a way of automatically counting words for you. If you are unsure how to do this, let me know and I will show you. Will I count all of your words to verify your total? Probably not. Unless you hand in something that is clearly not the length listed on the front page. I know most people start out by aiming for the minimum number of words, but given the scope of this paper topic you will likely have no difficulty meeting the word count. If a paper has less than 3000 words it will automatically fail the assignment.
Citations/Plagiarism – Read this carefully
You should be using academic sources for this paper. That means that while you can consult Wikipedia as a start, you should be using additional sources, possibly including global newspapers, scholarly books and journal articles and government websites. If you are going to use web-based sources, make sure (as always) to consider who the source of the website is. Are they credible? Do they have expertise? What’s their angle or bias? MAKE SURE TO USE CITATIONS IN YOUR PAPER. I don’t particularly care what format they are (MLA vs APA, parenthetical vs footnotes vs endnotes) just so long as (a) you stay consistent in the paper and (b) I can figure out how to find each source myself if I so choose.
Remember that whenever you use someone’s idea, either in a direct quote or reworded yourself, you should use a citation. Using someone’s words or ideas without citation is PLAGIARISM and doing so will lead to a minimum of a zero on the paper and quite possibly something more. PLEASE INCLUDE A WORKS CITED PAGE. Failure to do so will result in a 10% PENALTY.
Deadlines
You will notice that there are two deadlines for the paper: a priority deadline and a regular deadline. There are two kinds of students in this world. There are those who care about the feedback on their paper and there are those who don’t even check it. I myself have been both types depending on the class, my interest in the subject, and just how sick I was of the topic by the time I was done with the paper. For me as the person grading the paper about half the time I spend is on leaving you feedback. So I’ve developed this two-deadline system that is more efficient for me and for you. IF YOU WANT COMMENTS ON YOUR PAPER along with your grade, then make sure to submit your paper by the priority deadline. If you don’t care about the comments and only want the grade, submit it by the regular deadline. There is no extra credit for being early and both papers will get exactly the same amount of attention from me in terms of my reading it and grading it. The only difference is that the first deadline will get feedback while the second will not. Do not hesitate to ask me if you have any questions..
Paper Rubric
Overall Points: 320 Points
Introduction: 20 Points
Grammar/Spelling: 40 Points
Paper Length: 20 Points
Q1: 50 Points
Q2: 40 Points
Q3: 40 Points
Q4: 50 Points
Q5: 40 Points
Conclusion: 20 Points
No Points
Up to 50%
Up to 85%
Up to 100%
Total
Introduction
No Introduction
Small introduction with minimal information
Good introduction that lays out for the reader the structure of the rest of the paper
Covers all in 5-10 point range, plus includes a framing argument.
Grammar & Spelling
Frequent grammatical and/or spelling errors
Many grammatical and/or spelling errors
Some grammatical and/or spelling errors
Few to no grammatical and/or spelling errors
Paper Length, including word count on title page
Less than 3000 words:
Fails Assignment
3000-3500 words
More than 4000 words
3500-4000 words
Questions 1 – 5
Fails to address a relevant question
Answers question but does so in a cursory or factually inaccurate way
Answers question accurately. Hits relevant points.
Does everything in previous category with addition of something distinctive
Conclusion
No conclusion
Small conclusion with minimal information
Good conclusion that sums up all the information
Covers all in 5-10 point range, plus includes an analysis of what the student learned from the assignment
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
OVER
RATING
YEARS
