Dr. Marc D. Turetzky

Political Science 4: Introduction to International Relations

Fall 2010

International Crisis Paper Guidelines

I. Assignment

Each student in this course is responsible for writing a research intensive paper (At LEAST 11-12 pages) on an ONGOING CRISIS (NOT some distant, historical crisis like the Berlin Blockade/Airlift of 1948-49) of your choosing.

-The paper accounts for 25% of your course grade

-Papers are due, IN CLASS, on W, 12-15

-You can gather articles for your research paper from Ebscohost (among other data bases) through the Gavilan College library—please contact the staff at the library NOW for access to Ebscohost and help in researching your topic.

What exactly is an international crisis anyway? According to Professor Glenn Snyder (1977), an international crisis is defined as “a sequence of interactions between the governments of two or more sovereign states in severe conflict, short of actual war, but involving the perception of a dangerously high probability of war."

This paper asks you to choose a contemporary international crisis/conflict to describe and analyze. Examples of crises you can explore are listed immediately below:

• World Food Price
• World Water/Drought
• Arab/Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
• Global Economic Crisis
• North Korean Nuclear Weapons Program
• Ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Extremism in Pakistan
• Sudan-Darfur Genocide
• Climate Change
• War and crisis in Congo
• Disorder and chaos in Somalia
• Intl. Piracy
• etc

In this paper it is your job to do the following:

• History: Explain the roots/history/causes of the CRISIS (about 4 pages)
• Reaction of World Community: Describe/explain how the world/regional community has responded to the crisis—in the case of the Darfur, Sudan crisis, for example, the international community has done virtually nothing (about 4 pages)
• YOUR Analysis: Describe how YOU think the world community should respond (about 4 pages)

Note: **Don’t forget to include a brief introduction & conclusion** (approximately 1 paragraph each)

Paper Format Guidelines (PLEASE READ THESE!

The formal research paper MUST follow the guidelines set forth below:

• Papers must be typed. There are no exceptions to this rule.
• Papers must be at least 11-12 pages in length, not including title page and bibliography.
• Please include headings
• Please include page numbers
• Grammar & spelling count.
• Papers will be due in stages which means you will be submitting increments of your paper to me throughout the semester. First you will choose a topic and write a thesis statement. Next, you will submit an outline, then an anotated bibliography. After that you will turn in a rough draft and finally you will submit your polished, brilliant draft on the last day of the semester. It will be your crisis study magnum opus...per se...
• ***Be sure to avoid any question of plagiarism by crediting ideas as well as direct quotes in the body of the paper**  Use standard MLA or Political Science Style Manual citation formats. We will discuss plagiarism in a lot more detail IN CLASS...
• You can cite direct quotes in the following manner: Professor Ray suggests that “the Second World War was predictable in the sense that it was brought about by concrete, visible factors, such as Germany’s defeat in 1918, inflation,” and so on (Ray 1995: 157).
• So all you need to include in a citation is the author’s last name, the date of publication, as well as the page number.
• You must include a bibliography. Remember that this is a research paper, and so you will base your analysis on background reading in newspapers, magazines, current books and scholarly, refereed journals.
•  I recommend newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor
• Here is a GREAT resource (World Affairs Council resource site): http://www.itsyourworld.org/schools/links.php
• Here is another GREAT resource (Gavilan College Library Site): http://www.gavilan.edu/library/
• Here is a favorite, trusted, independent search engine: http://lii.org/search/file/govlaw
• Here’s a fabulous guide to Foreign Affairs and Intl Relations: http://www.cfr.org/
• Possibly the best online guide to international crises is The Intl. Crisis Group
• Another great online guide to crises is Crisis Watch
• A good site to monitor the threat of intl. terrorism is called Global Crisis Watch, or Threats Watch
• **You should also include the Ray and Kaarbo, Snow, and Nye books. Your bibliography MUST include AT LEAST TEN (could be a lot more…) different and very recent sources—include at least two sources from academic journals (Journal of Conflict Resolution, World Politics), two sources from books, two sources from magazines (Time, Newsweek), two from newspapers (New York Times, Washington Times) and two from books