WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

a)      Assignments must be double-spaced typed, with one-inch margins at the top, bottom and sides of the pages.
 Letter size of the font may be no smaller than the size used in this syllabus.

b)     Length limits will be strictly observed.  Do not exceed them.

c)      These essays are analytical, not research-based.  You need not read anything  but the assigned readings to write them.  You do, however, have to think about the assigned readings and the lectures in order to write good essays.

d)     The key to these essays is making an argument and supporting it with references to the readings and lectures.  Your answer to the question -- your thesis -- should be clearly stated at the very outset of the paper.  Give a brief overview of the structure of your argument -- how you intend to support your thesis -- before launching into your discussion of the cases.  Make sure that when you do refer directly to a reading that you properly cite the author(s).  A full citation is not necessary.  An abbreviated citation (eg.:  Goldstein, p. 234) is sufficient.  If you do cite a source other than those included in the assigned readings, give the full citation.

e) Leave yourself enough time to write a first draft, edit and cut it, and hand in the second draft.

Thesis Identification Exercises.   

You will read the two selections and write very short (no more than 500 words) descriptions of what the author's thesis is and the arguments used to support it.  By thesis, I mean the major point or argument that the author is trying to convey in the reading.  Being able to identify an author's thesis is an essential skill of critical reading.  Having a clear thesis is an essential element of good analytical writing. You are also expected to summarize the main supporting argument or arguments that the author uses to prove his or her thesis.

These exercises will be worth 20% of the student's final grade.

First Essay -- Choose one of the following two questions.  Due at the beginning of class October 30.  Length:  maximum seven pages (double-spaced, typed).

1.  Does realism as an approach to studying international relations dictate specific policy choices to decision makers?  Or could different people, beginning with the same realist first principles, come to very different policy conclusions about specific issues? Discuss this question by imagining yourself as a British policy maker in August 1914.  Make an argument, based on realist principles, for Britain taking an aggressive role in supporting France and Russia, even to the point of war, in the crisis.  Then present an argument, also based on realist principles, for Britain to remain aloof from the developing crisis.  (Remember, this is a question about realism.  A good answer has to discuss the basic principles of realism as a starting point, before getting into the details of the two arguments.)
 

2.  The crisis of August 1914 led to a world war.  The many crises of the Cold War did not.  Is the only difference the presence of nuclear weapons?  If so, explain how nuclear weapons have so drastically altered the security situation since 1945, with examples from the Cold War.  If not, describe the other relevant differences between the outbreak of World War I and the Cold War that can explain why great power war occurred in the first case and did not in the second.  (A good answer to this question must be truly comparative -- it must discuss both the World War I case and the Cold War case.)

Second Essay -- Due December 15.  Length:  maximum seven pages (double-spaced, typed).

Does realism or liberalism provide a better explanation for how states behave in the international economic realm?  Discuss this question in relation to the cases we have examined this semester:  trade and financial relations among North America, Japan and Western Europe since 1945; the European Union; and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.  (Your answer to this question need not necessarily be that one theoretical approach is always right and the other always wrong.  If you are going to argue that some cases seem best explained by one theory and others by another, you must discuss the conditions under which each one seems to apply.)