POSC 2200/Fall2013/Russell Alan Williams
POSC 2200
Introduction to International
Politics
Fall 2013
www.mun.ca/posc
RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES
1) ESSAY (40%) Due in Class, November 19 (Late Penalty = 5% a day)
Students are to pick a topic from the list provided below, or, if they wish they may pick their own
paper topic with the approval of the instructor. Each essay must meet the following formal
requirements:
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The paper should be approximately 2,500 words
The paper should make use of seven separate sources in its citations
The paper should be formatted in the style of a formal research paper
Please remember, a good research paper has three core elements. It has a thesis, which introduces
the core argument of the paper. It develops that argument throughout the body of the paper
through the use of evidence – evidence drawn from a minimum of SEVEN separate research
sources. It should also have a conclusion that reiterates the central argument of the paper and sums
up how the evidence supports that argument. There are no “correct” answers – there are only well
written, well argued and well researched papers.
 Note: Any paper that has neither a clear thesis nor sufficient research will result in failure on the
assignment.
It goes without saying that papers should also be well written, spell checked and carefully proofread.
For students unfamiliar with the stylistic requirements of a research paper, a suggested style guide is
included below.
2) ESSAY TOPICS:
Please select one of the following questions as the topic of your research paper:
Contemporary topics:
 Will the U.S. win the “war on terror”?
 Was the “Bush Doctrine” realist?
 Why did the US occupy Iraq in 2003?
 Why did Canada not join in occupying Iraq in 2003?
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Would an international intervention in the current Syrian civil war be a good idea?
Is China a “superpower”?
How will China’s rising power impact the world?
Is the Nuclear Non Proliferation Regime failing?
Should Canada feel insecure in the modern world?
Was Canada’s mission in Afghanistan successful?
Will the US Missile Defense Initiative make the world safer?
Why did the world fail to react to the Rwandan Genocide?
What is the cause of the India/Pakistan arms race?
Classic debates:
 What should be done to reform the United Nations?
 Why did the League of Nations fail to prevent WWII?
 Canada/US Relations - Closest allies or bad neighbors?
 Does deterrence work? The effectiveness of the MAD Doctrine
 What caused the “Cold War”?
 Do arms control agreements “work”?
 Does peacekeeping work?
 Do countries like Canada have an obligation to provide foreign aid?
 Why did the “Cold War” end?
 Does sovereignty protect the rights of states to violate human rights?
Theoretical concerns:
 Are there morally “just” wars?
 Is there “international law”?
 Does gender effect international relations?
 How does “human security” challenge traditional IR ideas about security?
 How important are human rights in international relations?
 Is the international system anarchical?
 What causes “war”?
Economics, Development and the Environment:
 What can be done about the LDC debt crisis?
 Does the IMF help developing countries in financial trouble?
 Is the World Trade Organisation (WTO) effective or is it failing?
 Is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) good for Canada?
 Why has Canada’s government opposed efforts to combat global warming?
 How important are MNCs in international politics?
 What is the right development strategy for the “south”?
 How is globalization impacting the global distribution of wealth?
 Has the Kyoto Protocol failed?
 Does microfinance help development?
 Does foreign aid and development assistance “work”?
Any other topic in international relations approved by the instructor
POSC 2200/Fall2013/Russell Alan Williams
3) DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE POLICY ON PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism means offering the words or ideas of another person as one's own. The material copied
or paraphrased may consist of a few phrases or sentences, or an entire passage or paper. Whatever
its form and extent, plagiarism constitutes two kinds of failure:
1) Failure to perform the basic tasks expected in any paper -- original mental effort
and expression
2) The moral failure of academic dishonesty
Plagiarism may be deliberate (as in the submission of a paper written in whole or part by another
student, purchased from an essay bank, or cut and pasted from web sites) or the result of
carelessness through failure to provide proper documentation.
All directly copied or quoted material must be enclosed in quotation marks and the source must be
clearly identified in a footnote. The source of any paraphrased material or ideas must also be
properly documented. Failure to do so is plagiarism.
The procedure for handling cases of suspected plagiarism at Memorial University is set out in the
University Calendar. All cases of suspected plagiarism must be reported to the Department Head in
accordance with Section 4.11 of the University Calendar General Regulations. Depending on the
circumstances and the degree of plagiarism involved, the Department of Political Science normally
handles first offenders in accordance with the Procedures for Informal Resolution (Section 4.11.5).
The penalty in such cases is normally a grade of 0 for the work concerned. The Department
maintains a list of students who have been found guilty of plagiarism, and in the case of a second
offence or in particularly serious cases of plagiarism, the Procedures for Formal Resolution (Section
4.11.6) will be followed. The penalty in these cases may be probation, suspension or expulsion in
addition to the grade of 0 for the work concerned.
If in any doubt about what plagiarism consists of, consult with your instructor or refer to any
standard work on writing essays and research papers. The Faculty of Arts Writing Centre (SN2053)
can also provide relevant information. The notes on proper documentation below may also be of
assistance.
4) ADVICE ON PROPER DOCUMENTATION:
A good political science paper contains a logical argument built on solid evidence. Evidence for
most student papers will come from websites, books, journals, newspapers, and government
documents. Documenting citations in the form of footnotes, endnotes, or in-text references
(with page numbers) must be provided for all facts, ideas, or interpretations that are not considered
to be common knowledge. An acceptable rule of thumb for determining whether an item is one of
common knowledge would be if the information is readily available in a number of different
sources. An example may help:
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It is common knowledge that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a black civil rights activist who
was jailed in Alabama for leading a march against segregation in the early 1960s.
= No citation required for such a fact.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed disappointment that southern religious leaders urged
people to comply with desegregation not because it was morally right but because it was the
law.
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= Citation required
In the second example, the reader might want to check that Rev. King actually did express those
views. A good guideline to follow is to ask yourself where your understanding of the thoughts,
beliefs, or ideas of an individual or a group came from. If you don't know, are you sure that your
understanding is accurate? If it isn't, then don't use it. If you do know, then state the source.
A common misperception is that citations only have to be given for direct quotations. This is not
correct; citations must be provided in all cases where an idea, belief, action, or thought is attributed
to an individual or group.
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A citation would be required for the following quotation from page 14 of the province's
Strategic Economic Plan. "The private sector must be the engine of growth. While it is the role of
government to create an economic and social environment that promotes competitiveness, it is the enterprising
spirit of the private sector that will stimulate lasting economic growth."
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A citation would also be required for the following statement. The Strategic Economic Plan
argues that the private sector must be the basis of economic growth in the province.
 Bottom Line: A footnote, endnote, or in text reference (depending on they system being used)
must be provided whenever you "borrow" a particular idea, interpretation, or argument from a
known source.
5) CITATIONS AND STYLE GUIDE - “IN TEXT REFERENCES”:
Canadian political science generally follows an “in-text reference” system. A useful guide to this
style can be found in Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.1
The book is available in the reference section of the University library. While any of the officially
recognized citation systems is acceptable for this paper, generally the Political Science Department
encourages the use of this system. A good style guide for applying this system is the Department of
Political Science Journal Mapping Politics (http://journals.library.mun.ca/MP/mp_styleguide.pdf).
Students are encouraged to consult the style guide if they have questions.
Citing Electronically Accessed Sources:
Wherever possible try to cite a website source in the traditional manner. If you have downloaded an
article from the web cite it as you would any other article. Where this is not possible, and the web
content has no author or title for example, cite the name of the organization as if it is the author of
the information you are citing. In your works cited/ references section you can include the full http
web address of the page. Also, since internet documents are not fixed in either content or location,
you need to indicate the date you accessed the page.2
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1996).
2 Henderson, John R. ICYouSee: T is for Thinking: A Guide to Critical Thinking About What You See on the Web. Ithaca, NY:
Ithaca College Library, 2002. Database on-line. Available from http://www.ithaca.edu/library/Training/hott.html.
Accessed 1 May 2002.
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