REQUIREMENTS:
More than 5,000 words.
More than 10 references to international relations journal articles (see journal list on Canvas) or books by university presses over and above class reading.
A coherent answer to the question that you select from the choices below.
A consistent style for references, headings, subheadings, etc.
Clear writing with appropriate grammar.
CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
How do the approaches to International Relations (Realism, liberalism, constructivism, etc) inform scholarship on terrorism, guerrillas, international law, ethno-nationalism? How do they lay the groundwork and marshal the field of international relations and allow for this more practical, perhaps substantive, content?
One of the birth stories of international relations claims that it was intended to provide the United States with a cadre of civilian experts on conflict and war to balance the expertise of the military and allow for civilian oversight of the armed forces. To what extent do international relations as a discipline, and the readings in this course specifically, lay the foundation for achieving that intent.
What is missing from this course? Choose some other perspectives and readings from international relations literature and show how they would compliment and/or supplement what we have read here.
DESCRIPTION
The main project for this course is the course research question. Choose a focus from the options above. You should choose one only and get to work on it straight away. This will be your main deliverable in this course and all other assignments are set up to support it directly or indirectly.
This project will be a single 5,000-word paper that you should work on throughout the course. The research question assignment should help you with this project. There are 11 research question assignments and so if you answer each of those, your own, questions in about 500 words, and if they are related to each other in such a way as to allow a coherent answer to the course research question, and if you write every week, this should be a very manageable project. If you try to write 5,000 words in two hours before the deadline, you will find that very challenging.
Aside from the length requirement, you are required to cite readings both from our course readings and from other sources. While there is not a specific number of sources from outside the class that you should include, it should be a number larger than 10. Also, the sources should be from peer-reviewed journal articles and books published by university presses and should be predominantly from the international relations field. See the list of IR Journals on Canvas for help with this requirement. I would be happy to help you if you have any questions about specific books or articles.
Choose any format for footnotes/inline citations and make sure your writing is clear and answers the question as written.
I will read your draft twice throughout the semester and give you feedback at set times but you may request feedback at any time throughout the class period.
