POLI 361
Issues in World Politics
Research Paper and Role-playing Simulation
This is big and has very important information in it. For that reason, I’ve created a Table of Contents (linked to sections below) for you to use to find information you’re looking for. You should read this entire assignment, however. I guarantee you will wind up with a better grade if you do.
Numbering Endnotes or Footnotes
Nitpicks and Style Issue (or Helpful hints)
Over three class periods we will simulate the international politics of the China and Taiwan question. Each of you will be assigned the role of a governmental official of an interested nation (see the possible roles listed below). Your challenge will be to prepare your nation and work with other nations to reduce the probability of a serious diplomatic, economic, or military clash over the China-Taiwan issue. We will have full class period briefing on the issue, but the short version is this:
Japan occupied China during World War II. When Japan was defeated, the
internationally-recognized government of the Republic of China, led by the
Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or Goumindang) under Chiang Kai-shek, faced a
rebellion from the Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong. What quickly became a civil war by 1946 was a
continuation of a struggle between the two groups that goes back to the
1920s. The Communists won the war in
October 1949, proclaiming the birth of the People’s Republic of China. The
Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan where they set up a Republic of China
government in exile and pledged themselves to retaking the mainland. The struggle became a classic Cold War
rivalry. The US and its allies backed the Republic of China (ROC) government
(on Taiwan), while the USSR and its allies supported the People’s Republic of
China (PRC) (with possession of the mainland). Both governments pledged to
reunify someday, but obviously each had a different notion of what that might
look like. Both governments believed in “One China,” and both in the 1950s and
early 1960s seemed to believe that reunification would require military force.
China sought to regain control of a “renegade province” of “splittists.” Taiwan hoped to use military incursions into
the mainland to spur a rebellion against the Communist government that might
lead to a return of the Nationalists to control of the nation.
It is an awkward situation: two governments; two economies;
independent of each other and stating support for reunification, while being
openly hostile toward each other. Other nations around the world choose which
nation to consider the real China. For example, Japan recognized the ROC in
Taiwan as the real China until 1972, then it switched to the PRC. The US recognized the ROC until 1979 then
switched to the PRC. Both Japan and the US have unofficial relations with
Taiwan (trade and cultural ties, as well as military ties), but do not
recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.
The situation is much the same today although a bit more
complex. Though China is still a
dictatorship led by the Communist party, it is a “Communist” country with a
capitalist economy, and has deep economic ties with all the major nations in
East Asia (including Taiwan) and the rest of the world. It is the second
largest economy in the world. It has a
goal of reunifying Taiwan and explicitly states that, if necessary, it will use
force to take back Taiwan, which it still considers to be a renegade province. Taiwan has transformed from an anti-communist
dictatorship (1949-1987) into an economically-thriving liberal-democracy. And that complicates things. First, the 25
million or so people in Taiwan have less and less interest in giving up liberal
democracy to merge with an authoritarian state.
Second, the majority of the population has never lived in China or lived
in Taiwan when it was part of China; over 80% now see themselves as Taiwanese
and not ethnically Chinese (the last time Taiwan and China were unified under
one government for any significant period of time was before the 1894-1895
Sino-Japanese War). Third, one of the
main parties in Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is led by people
who often state their support for Taiwan independence. What “independence”
means in this context is an official statement that Taiwan no longer seeks
eventual reunification with China and would like to be recognized as a
sovereign state, a situation in which there would be effectively “two Chinas” or
“one China and one Taiwan.” China, however, states very clearly: if Taiwan
declares “independence,” China will invade.
China often uses military intimidation whenever Taiwanese
politicians use rhetoric that leans toward independence. Intimidation comes in the form of ballistic
missile tests that fly over Taiwanese territory, fighter planes that cross the
half-way point in the Taiwan Strait (the waterway that separates Taiwan and
China). Generally, when Taiwan has a presidential or legislative election, China
uses military exercise to intimidate voters, hoping to convince them to vote
against the DPP, and instead vote for the Nationalist Party, the KMT, which is
still a main party in Taiwan, and still believes in eventual reunification with
China.
Now here’s the kicker. The US has a policy of “strategic
ambiguity” toward the defense of Taiwan. The US usually does not say
specifically that it will defend Taiwan if China uses force against it, but the
US does sell Taiwan military equipment and has consistently said that any
Chinese aggression toward Taiwan will have the “gravest consequences.” While president, Trump even suggested that
two China’s would be fine with him, but quickly backed down when Xi Jinping
complained. On four occasions President Biden has explicitly stated that the US
would defend Taiwan if China attacked it. Each time, White House officials
suggested that Biden’s statements weren’t a change in US policy (even though
they clearly were). Biden’s strategic clarity followed by a denial may be the
Biden administration version of strategic ambiguity. In short, A Chinese attack on Taiwan may be
the beginning of World War III.
By the way, 179 nations recognize the PRC as China. Only 12
nations have official relations with Taiwan (meaning they recognize Taiwan as a
sovereign state).
Our challenge in this class is to
fast forward a few months. On January
13, 2024, Taiwan will have a presidential and legislative election. Currently, Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP is
president. She is ending her second four-year term as president and cannot run
again. The current vice president, Lai Ching-te, is the DPP candidate for
president, and is running ahead in the polls. The KMT candidate is the current
New Taipei Mayor, Hou Yu-ih. The Legislative
Yuan of Taiwan has 113 seats; all up for re-election (four-year terms). DPP has
62 seats; the KMT has 37.
That’s all true. Here’s the
simulation part that is fiction, and sets up our game: Rumors are that if Lai
Ching-te wins and the DPP maintains its majority in the legislature, the new
government will declare independence.
China has warned that this means war. What do we do about that?
Each one of you will be assigned a
role in the simulation as an official from one of 14 different nations (no one
represents China or Taiwan; they’re policies will be governed by Burdett and
Newmann specifically so we can throw curveballs at you during the simulation.
Each nation will be represented by three officials/roles: a minister of foreign
affairs, minister of defense, and minister of finance (or their
equivalents). If you’re assigned a
minister of foreign affairs role, you’ll be focusing on the diplomatic aspects
of the situation; if you’re assigned a minister of defense role, you’ll focus
on the military/security aspects; if you’re assigned the minister of finance
role, you’ll focus on the economic aspects of the situation.
We say assigned, but you will have
the chance to indicate your preference for which country and which role you
would like to be assigned. We’ll try to accommodate those preferences as best
we can.
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Interested Global and Regional Powers |
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Australia |
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Minster
for Foreign Affairs |
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Minister
for Defense |
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Minister for Finance |
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India |
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Minister of Defence |
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Minister of Finance |
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Japan |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister of Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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Russia |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister of Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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South
Korea |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister of National
Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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United
States |
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Secretary
of State |
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Secretary of Defense |
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Secretary of the Treasury |
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ASEAN |
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Indonesia |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister of Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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Philippines |
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Secretary of Foreign
Affairs |
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Secretary of National
Defense |
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Secretary of Finance |
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Malaysia |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister of Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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Vietnam |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister of Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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Singapore |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister for Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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Thailand |
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Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
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Minister of Defense |
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Minister of Finance |
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European
Union |
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UK |
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Secretary of State for
Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs |
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Secretary of State for
Defence |
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Chancellor of the
Exchequer |
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France |
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Minister for Europe and
Foreign Affairs |
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Minister of the Armed
Forces |
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Minister of the Economy
and Finance |
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The simulation will take place over three class periods. On the first day, you will start the simulation by meeting with the other students who are playing roles from the same nation. During this meeting you’ll be working on a consensus about how your nation thinks of its interests in this situation, and what steps you want to take to further those interests. Most importantly for the simulation, you’ll be thinking of what nations you want to talk to directly and what international alliances/organizations are the proper venues for those discussions (if you want to do something beyond informal talks). During the lecture on the situation, we’ll give a full run down on the organizations available.
One thing that you may do during the simulation is call meetings of different informal or formal multilateral organizations that exist throughout Asia or within the United Nations.
Here’s a list of some of the intergovernmental organizations or multilateral treaties/agreements in East Asia:
· ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam
• ARF: ASEAN Regional Forum (All nations included here are in ARF)
• ASEAN Plus 3: ASEAN members plus China, Japan, and South Korea
• ASEAN Plus 6: ASEAN members plus Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand
• East Asia Summit (annual meeting of the ASEAN plus Six grouping)
• AUKUS: Australia, United Kingdom, United States agreement
• The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue: an informal grouping of the Australia, India, Japan, and the US
• Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): a trade agreement based in ASEAN and including the ASEAN states, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.
• Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP): A free trade agreement including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam
Of course, there is the UN Security Council. For the purposes of the simulation, we can assume that all 14 nations represented here are on the UNSC. China will make 15. If a UNSC meeting is called, we’ll decide how China is represented.
The schedule on the first day will look something like this
(the schedule for the second and third days will be based on what happens on
the first day, so we’ll work on that together).
·
Period
1: Each nation meets separately
·
Period
2: Nations meet informally with nations in select groupings
·
Period
3: Nations meet formally in some setting
·
Period
4: Nations meet informally with nations in select groupings (if time allows)
·
Period
5: Each nation meets separately (if time allows)
What are the goals of the simulation?
·
The goal of the simulation is for the class to
work toward an agreement that reduces the likelihood of conflict across the
Taiwan Strait. Since China is not one of
the participants here, the trick is to come up with a joint proposal or a set
of proposals that might resolve the situation.
·
While your papers are designed for you to take
the perspective of the nation you represent and the issue-area your role is
responsible for, the simulation is designed for you to work out some type of
common ground between as many nations as possible that can lead to a reduction
in tensions.
·
Having said that, however, we can add this thought.
Policy makers and scholars would argue that the historical record illustrates
many paths to reducing the likelihood of war.
Sometimes a peace agreement is reached among the rival parties, but
other times deterrence through a show of military force increases tensions in
the short run, in hopes of decreasing tensions in the long run.
·
In other words, you may be working in one or
more of the multilateral organizations to produce a proposal for China and
Taiwan to sign.
·
Or you may be working in one or more of the
multilateral organizations to establish an Asian security organization designed
to explicitly defend Taiwan (and everything in between, and even both at the
same time).
·
Of course, nations may work in smaller groupings
outside of any multilateral organization, and even unilaterally.
Your paper will be a research paper. Due date is on the
syllabus. See the basic requirements below.
Your research question will be simple, but answering it is the fun part
because you can go in many different directions. What is in your nation’s
national interest when it comes to a potential conflict between China and
Taiwan? Is it in your nation’s interest to side with China (bandwagoning with
the rising power in the region and the world)?
Is it in your nation’s interests to side with Taiwan (balancing against
a revisionist power that aims to coerce other nations in the region)? Will you lean toward neither, but hedge a
little in one direction or the other? Is
it in your nation’s interest to be neutral and to do what you can to defuse the
situation (because the status quo is best for you)?
Two important aspects of the way you
answer the question are crucial:
1.
You’ll
answer this question in the context of your role. If you’re assigned a minister
of foreign affairs role, you’ll be focusing on the diplomatic aspects of the
situation; if you’re assigned a minister of defense role, you’ll focus on the
military/security aspects; if you’re assigned the minister of finance role,
you’ll focus on the economic aspects of the situation.
2.
You’ll
answer this by researching the issue as your nation sees it. All of the nation’s represented in this
simulation have ties to China, and almost all have ties to Taiwan in some
way. That means that all these nations
have an interest in the Taiwan-China situation.
What are those interests? In your research you’ll find out what those
interests are. Your paper will explain
them.
One way
to approach this is to use a very specific structure to answer the key
questions here. Your paper might look like this.
o
Introduction:
summarize your paper. State your conclusions
o
Section
1: What are your nation’s relationships with China? Would they be threatened/complicated by a
conflict?
o
Section
2: What are your nation’s relationships with Taiwan? Would they be threatened/complicated by a
conflict?
o
Section
3: What are your nation’s relationships with other nations in the region (or
who are not from the region, but get involved in the region, like the US or the
EU)? Would they be
threatened/complicated by a conflict?
o
Section
4: Conclusions”: What is the likelihood that these relationships are
threatened/complicated by Chinese coercion of Taiwan?
As you
do this, think in terms of trade, any agreements (military ties, mutual defense
agreements, diplomatic arrangements) your nation has with China, or Taiwan, or
other nations in the region, and of course the implications of the growing
power of China in the region and the world (including the possibility for great
power conflict that might draw all the nations represented here into an actual
war). Many scholars see the Taiwan
Strait as the 21st equivalent of Berlin – the place most likely to
become the start of the next world war.
Note:
Don’t get hung up on your role as you write or write this in a formal way based
on making recommendations to your nation’s president or prime minister. Focus
on the analysis and your assessment of your nation’s national interest.
The
paper will include:
·
At
least 10 sources (See below lots of information on what are good sources and
what are sources that are not so good).
·
A
bibliography
·
None
of the assigned readings for the class count as a source. Use them, but they do not count as part of
the ten sources required.
·
Wikipedia
cannot be used as one of the ten sources.
It is an encyclopedia and encyclopedias were off limits as research
sources when you were in High School. In
other words: don’t use Wikipedia as a source. Do not use other web-based
encyclopedias either. Oh, and don’t use Wikipedia as a source. Or web-based
encyclopedias. Sorry for being so
wishy-washy on this.
·
The
paper should be turned in by hard copy at the beginning of class on the day it
is due or it is late.
·
If
you have questions, ask sooner rather than later.
Ask
us! If you have a question on where to
find sources or if you need a specific source and you can’t find it, ask
us. This is what we do for a living.
Library: Big building, lots of books. And people who will help you find
information. The librarian who will help
POLI and INTL folks is Nia Rodgers, slrodgers@vcu.edu. She’s fantastic and knows
everything!
Peer Review Articles from
Scholarly Journals: These are the best sources. They are written by
scholars like myself and your other POLI/INTL professors, then reviewed by
other professors before they are accepted for publication (a horrible process
similar to an intellectual colonoscopy).
But in spite of that, the result is an article that will be very helpful
to you. Most of the time they take a
broad look at the issues which is helpful to you because it gives you the pros
and cons for any issue the article examines. These articles also contain bibliographies
and citations which you can use to find other articles on the subject.
How do you know what the scholarly articles are?
Use scholar.google.com.
That is a specific search engine that only gets scholarly work. It eliminates
websites and newspaper articles and magazines. Remember that the web is
very good for several things: information on what happened yesterday; instant
opinion on what happened yesterday; instant disinformation (propaganda and
outright lies about what happened yesterday); and databases on obscure things.
How else would I know that in 1943 Washington quarterback Sammy Baugh led the
NFL in touchdown passes, interceptions, and punting? On November 14, against
the Lions, he threw four touchdown passes and intercepted four passes. I
know this from ProFootballreference.com. That’s fun. That’s the Internet. But
scholarly research should start with scholar.google.com.
How do you find a good journal at the VCU Library? The VCU library web site is a good
place to start if you want to find specific journals. Let’s say you’re
interested in Asia or China. You might go to the VCU Library website. Near the
top of the page, you’ll see a link for “Academics.” That will take you to a drop-down
menu. Click on “Libraries.” Then you’ll see a search box. Don’t search yet.
Below that click on “journal finder” and you’ll get another search box.
Type in “Asia” or “China” or the “Middle East” or whatever. You’ll get a
list of the journals that have that keyword in the title.
How do you find a good article at the VCU Library? This aspect is similar to what I
described above, but a more specific search. You might go to the VCU Library
website. Near the top of the page, you’ll see a link for “Academics.” That will
take you to a drop-down menu. Click on Libraries. Then you’ll see a search box.
Don’t search yet. Below that click on “Advanced.” You’ll get a set of
search boxes where you can specify what you’re looking for. So, let’s say I’m looking
for information on India’s relationship with China or Taiwan. I can set the
search for a subject in one field and type in “India.” Then set the search for
a subject in another field and type in “China.” Then hit search. See what
you get. Then do it again with “India” and “Taiwan” as keywords. On the left
you’ll see “filter options.” You can filter it in many ways. Searching
for only peer-reviewed articles is one of the options.
Some places or ways to look for sources
1.
Many journals are
available through the VCU system and you can search through the VCU library,
but you may also try Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/).
Use this instead of a regular search on any search engine. It will get you
scholarly work, think tanks reports and journals rather than the Wikipedia
entry.
2. Keywords: For any kind
of search keywords are important. You may have to do a few searches before you
find the right keywords that get you all the good sources. Always try a few
combinations to see what you get. If you were looking for books or
scholarly articles on Indian’s policy on Taiwan and China, you might use several
combinations of these:
a. “India”
b. “China”
c. “Taiwan”
3.
Citation Tracing: Don’t forget one
of the best ways to find good sources. Say you found a great article on exactly
the issue you’re researching. That
article will have footnotes, endnotes, parenthetical references, and a
bibliography. Find those articles and
books. Use them. They are almost guaranteed to be useful
because the author of the great article you just read must have found them
useful.
Journals/Websites/Blogs: There is a ton of stuff out there. Here is a list of sources you might use. Again, the keyword search on scholar.google.com is the way to start. But the list below will give you an idea of what are the best places to find information because even scholar.google.com won’t necessarily tell you what sources are the most useful.
The
Best Journals on East Asia
·
Asia Policy
·
Asian Survey
·
The China Quarterly
·
Contemporary Southeast Asia
·
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
·
Issues and Studies (China and Taiwan)
·
Pacific Affairs
The best on Foreign Policy (that will have plenty
on Asia)
·
CSIS Asia Program (Center for
Strategic and International Studies)
· The Diplomat (Journal on Asian Politics and Foreign Policy – Outstanding)
·
Every
Congressional Research Service Report: Asia (US Government)
·
Foreign Affairs (the
journal of the Council on Foreign Relations; the preeminent policy journal on
US foreign affairs; policy-oriented)
·
Foreign Policy
(journal; policy-oriented)
·
International Security
(journal; MIT/Harvard one of the best on political-military issues)
·
RAND Corporation (US government-sponsored think
tank; the best of the best)
·
RAND
Corporation: Center for Asia Pacific Policy (CAPP)
·
RAND
Corporation, Tang
Institute for US-China Relations
·
Survival (journal of
the International Institute for Strategic Studies; the best British think tank)
·
The Washington
Quarterly (the best policy-oriented journal)
·
War on the Rocks (online; shorter academic
and policy articles; outstanding; mostly practitioners, occasionally academics)
Bigger Lists of Journals and Sources
A bigger list: The best are indicated with an asterisk
·
******Asian
Survey (Best in the world; start here)
·
ASEAN Economic Bulletin
·
Asian Affairs
·
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies
·
China: An International Journal
·
China Economic Journal
·
*The China Quarterly
·
The China Journal
·
*Chinese Journal of International Relations
(Chinese perspectives)
·
Contemporary Japan
·
*Contemporary Southeast Asia
·
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
·
Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies
·
European Journal of East Asian Studies
·
The
Journal of Asian Studies
·
India Journal of Asian Affairs
·
India Review
·
Indian Journal of Political Science
·
Indonesia
·
*International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
·
*Issues and Studies (China and Taiwan)
·
Journal of Asian History
·
The Journal of Asian Studies
·
Journal of Chinese Political Science
·
Journal of Contemporary China
·
Journal of Current Chinese
Affairs
·
Journal of East Asian Studies
·
The
Journal of Korean Studies
·
Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia
·
Journal
of Southeast Asian Studies
·
*Japan
Review
·
Modern Asian Studies
·
Modern China
·
*Pacific Affairs
·
Political Economy Journal of India
·
Sino-Japanese Studies
·
Social Science Journal Japan
·
Southeast
Asian Affairs
·
Southeast Review of Asian Studies
·
Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs
General
International Security that will have articles on China and Taiwan
·
*Foreign Affairs
(policy-oriented)
·
*Foreign Policy
(policy-oriented)
·
Foreign Policy Analysis (academic)
·
The National Interest (policy-oriented)
·
**The Washington
Quarterly (policy-oriented)
·
*Survival
(policy-oriented)
·
Journal of
Intelligence and Counterintelligence (policy-oriented)
·
The American Interest
(policy-oriented)
·
Orbis (half policy;
half academic)
·
Journal of Strategic
Studies (half academic; half policy)
·
**International
Security (academic)
·
Security Studies
(academic)
·
International Affairs
(London-based academic)
·
World Politics
(academic)
·
Journal of Conflict
Resolution (academic)
·
Armed Forces and
Society (academic on civil-military relations)
·
Journal of National
Security Law and Policy (legal)
·
National Security Law
Journal (legal)
·
Harvard Law School
National Security Journal (legal)
·
International
Organization (academic)
·
*Texas
National Security Review (policy)
·
*Arms
Control Today (arms proliferation and nuclear weapons)
·
Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists (same as Arms Control Today)
·
Georgetown
Journal of International Affairs (academic)
·
Journal
of Democracy (academic, focused on human rights issues)
·
Millennium
(academic)
The Best Academic/Policy Blogs
·
Taiwan-US
Quarterly Analysis (Brookings
Institution)
·
Lawfare
·
**War on the Rocks (Excellent on China-Taiwan issues)
·
Harvard
Law School National Security Journal
·
Institute
for the Study of War
·
Journal of
National Security Law and Policy
·
Texas National
Security Review
Web
Resources on China (Think Tanks and Foundations)
·
Asia Society, Policy Institute, Center
for China Analysis (multinational non-profit think tank)
·
Asia Times (news on Asia)
·
Brookings
Institution Center
for East Asia Policy Studies (US-Based think tank)
·
Brookings Institution: John L.
Thornton China Center
Brookings-Tsinghua Center
·
Brookings
Institution: where
to look for information on China
·
Center for Advanced China Research (think tank, produces analysis on Chinese
politics)
·
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: China Program
·
Council
on Foreign Relations: China
·
Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) China
Program
·
Center for Strategic and International Studies: Freeman
Chair in China Studies
·
CSIS, Asia
Maritime Transparency Initiative
· **The Diplomat (Journal on Asian Politics and Foreign Policy – Outstanding)
·
East Asia Forum (Australian National
University research center)
·
**Every
Congressional Research Service Report: Asia
·
Indiana
University Links to Southeast
Asian government web sites
·
National Bureau of Asian Research (US-based
think tank)
·
Peterson Institute for International
Economics: China
·
RAND Corporation:
Center for Asia Pacific Policy (CAPP)
·
RAND
Corporation, Tang
Institute for US-China Relations
·
Stanford Center on China’s Economy and
Institutions
·
Stanford University, Walter H.
Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
· Stanford University, Shorenstein Center China Program
·
US-China Policy Foundation links
General
List of Think Tanks:
The
best are:
Excellent Ones are
·
International Crisis Group: https://www.crisisgroup.org:
This is the best thing that exists on current international crises.
·
American Enterprise Institute (AEI): leans conservative, but is not too
ideological
·
Arms Control Association (ACA): Non-profit organization that watches
over world military trends; it has a decidedly pro-arms control attitude
·
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BSCIA):
The Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University) does some of the best
analyses of international affairs and national security and publishes the best
journal on international affairs, International Security, which can
be accessed online through the VCU online journal systems.
·
Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs:
Focuses on Human Rights issues.
·
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace: One of the biggest and best.
It is a non-profit organization, which studies international affairs and has a
huge number of programs. It sponsors scholarly research on
everything from non-proliferation to building civil society. See the
list of "Programs" on the home page.
·
Carter
Center: Former President Carter established this Center to
examine international issues, host conferences, and mediate international
conflicts.
·
Cato
Institute: Right of center think tank that conducts research on
foreign policy, national security, and economic policy, as well as domestic
political issues.
·
Center for American Progress (think
tank with links to the Democratic Party)
·
Center
for National Policy (non-partisan center which does some
national security work)
·
Center for Non-proliferation Studies (CNS) at
the Monterrey Institute of International Studies, which is one of the best
sources on information on the spread of weapons of mass destruction
·
Center for Strategic and International Affairs (CSIS):
attached to Georgetown University. It produces reports on national security, and
is filled with ex-government officials
·
Coalition
to Reduce Nuclear Danger: A center-left organization that
focuses on US and international nuclear weapons policy.
·
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO):
Columbia University’s compilation of papers, journals, web sites, and other
resources on international affairs. It’s not a think tank itself, but
collects information from think tanks, government, and other academic circles
on international affairs and national security. You may need to use your VCU
password and login to get into this system. It has a specific link to Working
Papers from various think tanks and scholarly institutes.
·
Council
for a Livable World: Center-left in its ideology and focuses on
ways to reduce the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and reign in US
defense expenditures and deployments.
·
Federation of American Scientists (FAS): Non-profit organization that watches
over world military trends.
·
Global Security.Org (excellent
resources for international diplomatic, military, and political issues)
·
Heritage
Foundation: Right of center think tank that conducts research on
foreign policy, national security, and economic policy, as well as domestic
political issues.
·
Hudson
Institute: Center-right think tank that conducts research on
foreign policy, national security, and economic policy, as well as domestic
political issues.
·
Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA): Non-profit think tank that does a lot
of work for the US government on national security issues. Much of its research
is available online.
·
Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis (IDSA):
A think tank that looks at many international security issues, particularly
east and South Asia. It is an Indian institute based in New Delhi.
·
International
Republican Institute (Republican Party-affiliated
organization that analyzes world affairs and supports programs that help
nations make the transition to democracy)
·
Institute for
Security Studies: (Based in several nations in Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya,
Senegal, and South Africa)
·
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (Democratic
Party-affiliated organization that analyzes world affairs and supports programs
that help nations make the transition to democracy)
·
National
Endowment for Democracy: A private, non-profit
organization that is funded by the US Congress. Its goal is to foster
democracy around the world through programs and research
·
National
Security Archive: This is a non-profit organization that gets
the US government to declassify documents relating to US foreign affairs (through
Freedom of Information Act requests) then makes those documents available to
the public. Some are available online. All are available at the Archive itself
(In George Washington University’s library. You can contact the Archive and
make an appointment to go there.) Some are also available to purchase in sets.
·
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):
Non-profit organization that watches over world military trends
·
New
America Foundation (centrist think tank that looks at
domestic and international issues)
·
Nixon Center: Non-Profit organization that
studies foreign and national security policy, leans toward republican ideas
·
Nuclear
Threat Initiative (non-profit, non-partisan group that
analyzes and lobbies on nuclear proliferation issues)
·
Project for a New American Century: New
think tank that espouses and develops neoconservative views.
·
Project on Defense Alternatives (center-left)
·
Henry
L. Stimson Center: Non-profit organization that watches over
world political and military trends, in particular United Nations peace
operations
·
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI):
Non-profit organization that watches over world military trends
·
Western States Legal Foundation: A pro-arms control
group watching over US defense expenditures and deployments and their impact on
the public among other things.
·
Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars: Supports scholarly
research on a number of international topics. In particular, its Cold War International History Project provides
support for scholars using declassified documents to understand what was really
going on in Washington and Moscow during the Cold War.
·
Union of Concerned Scientists: Center-left
in its ideology and focuses on ways to reduce the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and reign in US defense expenditures and deployments.
·
United States Institute for Peace (USIP); Funded by the US Congress, it is a
non-partisan organization that sponsors and published research concerning
conflict prevention and conflict resolution
A Note on Good Sources and Bad Sources
The Internet: You cannot do this type of research only from
websites. Do not expect to be able to sit in front of your computer
without using scholar.google or the VCU library system and find all the
information you need. Remember that the primacy purpose of the Internet
is advertising (even what passes for information is often really advertising
its information). The web tells you that everything you need is on the web.
That is not true. It is especially not true when it comes to
scholarship.
A Warning about the Web: We don't
think we need to tell you much about the web. In college Newmann wrote papers
on a manual typewriter and he took his SATs on stone tablets. Newmann didn’t
learn much about Taiwan and China while in college because the Qin emperor had
just been overthrown. But if you do have any questions about it let us know. An
important note about Internet sites: what is crucial about any webpage is that
you know what the source of the information is. All information on the web is
not equal. Before you trust any information on the web you must know who runs
the websites. Who is the source of the information? Nazi Parties from various
countries have many websites. Their information is probably not a source you
want to use for research on Israeli foreign policy, for example. If
you’re researching Chinese foreign policy, you need to know if the source is
from the Chinese government or a scholarly source. Their views might be very
different. There is a ton of propaganda on the web. Many governments in the
world are not Democratic. They don’t have freedom of the press, but they do
have a huge presence on the Internet where they disseminate propaganda that
tries to influence the world’s judgment of their actions. China, Russia,
or North Korea are good examples of nations that use propaganda on the internet
as part of their “influence operations” that try to make their governments look
warm and fuzzy while they imprison government critics.
Even in Democracies you need to be careful of
the sources. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party both have their own
web presence that is designed to make them look good, and make their political
opponents look bad. Media often has a perspective as well (left, right,
center, celebrity, sensationalist, scandal…whatever). In short, always be
mindful of where the information comes from. The web is a smorgasbord of
conspiracy theories. That’s one of the most difficult aspects of our
information environment. There are so many sources of information and
many of them are just garbage. Remember that on the web you can find a lot of
information on these topics, NONE OF THE FOLLOWING ARE TRUE!!!!!
·
How President George W. Bush launched the September 11 attacks so
he could repeal the 2nd Amendment
·
How George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 to steal all Iraq’s oil
and prevent Saddam Hussein from disclosing that the Bush family had been
controlling global oil prices for decades in league with the Saudi Arabian
royal family
·
How Barack Obama was born in Kenya and sneaked into the US at an
early age so he could become President; he was doing this under the orders of
al-Qaeda
·
How the Affordable Care Act (that created near universal
healthcare in the US) had a section allowing a small government committee to
decide who would live or die when they reached old age (the “death panels”)
·
Again: NONE OF THESE ARE TRUE, but there are sadly way too many
people who believe this stuff because it is on the Internet.
·
Oh, and there was an Italian website about fifteen years ago that
linked me to the Kennedy assassination. I am not kidding. I had just turned two
when Kennedy was killed. If I was involved in the plot, I don’t remember.
How do you tell what is good and what is bad?
That’s difficult, but here are some keys to it:
·
Beware of “news” sites where all the articles are designed to
frighten you about the dangers of this or that
·
Especially be wary of “news” sites which try to frighten you and tell
you the sky is falling, then move to a commercial break and try to sell you
something that will save your life when the sky does fall. These are
essentially infomercials masquerading as news.
·
Beware of “news” sites where everything comes from one extreme
perspective -- all the problems of the world are caused by a specific
politician, or a specific political party, and there is never any middle ground
or alternative perspective. Many legitimate news sites are accused of that by
their competitors; if you actually read those news sites, you find that
the accusation is false.
·
News organizations get things wrong from time to time. That
doesn’t mean bias. That means that journalists are human. The difference
between real news and “fake” news is simple. Fake news is propaganda designed
to push a political agenda by making you believe something that is false.
Real news is an attempt to get to the truth. Sometimes that doesn’t
always happen. Journalists can use a bad source or forget what they learned in
journalism school because they are so excited to get a scoop. Journalists can
make honest mistakes, and there are bad journalists who may make bad mistakes.
The difference is this: when a good newspaper or website gets it wrong, they
fix the mistake and they often fire or demote the reporter. They also
have multiple reporters working on any sensitive story because they want to
make sure they have a lot of eyes on the subject. Bad newspapers or
websites tell a story, and when someone proves that it is wrong, they don’t
care. They continue to push the story because they aren’t interested in getting
it right; they are interested in selling the story to achieve a political
goal. That’s not news; it is propaganda.
Remember
there is a ton of disinformation and misinformation from conspiracy theory
folks and foreign governments trying to influence US politics, and sadly by
politicians and activists in the US who are working hard to spread
propaganda. If you’re not sure ask us or
go to a fact checking site:
·
Fact
Check.Org From the Annenberg
Center at the University of Pennsylvania
·
PolitiFact.com From several newspapers
·
The Fact Checker From
the Washington Post
·
Snopes.com (fact checking and debunking urban legends and
internet hoaxes that are often about politics)
Read this. Pay attention to it
or face everlasting doom!
The following is not just because we want to annoy you or
because we like to have things done our way.
The following is because this is a class where you will do social science
research and the rules of social science research are different from the rules
of English composition or journalism.
Learning how to write for different audiences and in different styles is
part of the university experience.
You must use an established format for citations and your
bibliography. You need to learn how to
reference information properly, and how to write a bibliography with the
correct and complete information before you leave VCU. This is easy to do, but
more important than you think. Whether you go into academia or business you
will be judged on the quality of your information, and that means people will
want to know where you found your information. They will judge you at first,
before they read your text, on your bibliography and citations. If you do it
wrong while at VCU, you’ll get a deduction from your grade. If you do this in graduate school or
government or the business world, you will be asked to go home and not come
back (as in “you’re fired”).
Here are resources that will teach you to do this:
·
When
in doubt, use this: Chicago
Style Citation
Format (not Chicago Style Pizza; no deep-dish citations)
·
Or
you can use one of the assigned books in the class as a template for citation
style.
·
Or
use these online resources:
o
Easy
Bib
o
MLA Style (Remember that for this assignment
you need page numbers even f MLA says you don’t).
o
Bibme
o
Purdue OWL (Online Writing Workshop)
·
Or use scholar.google.com: Let’s say you
found an article on this page (or even if you didn’t you can look it up on
scholar.google.com anyway by typing in author and title). Once you get the
article in the list of sources, you’ll see underneath the source a large
quotation mark. Click that and you’ll get a list of different versions of the
correct citation for the source. You can cut and paste. This doesn’t work for
books; the citations they have for books are not quite correct.
The Evils of In-Text Citations
In the social sciences, particularly Political
Science, do not use the long format in-text citations. That may be good for
English or journalism, but not for scholarly social science. What I mean is the
following. Let’s say you used a book by Rush Doshi called The
Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Replace American Order, and you want
to cite some information from it (Doshi was hired as the Biden administration’s
senior director for China on the National Security Council staff).
·
Never write a sentence like this: Rush
Doshi, a Biden administration official, states in his book The Long Game:
China’s Grand Strategy to Replace American Order that
China seeks hegemony is East Asia.
·
Even this is something to avoid: According to Doshi, China
seeks hegemony in East Asia.
·
Instead write a sentence like this: China’s grand strategy is designed with the goal of
replacing the US as the most powerful nation in East Asia (add citation
for Doshi there). The citations are there so you don’t have to
include the author’s info in the text. That just takes up space, clutters
up your writing, and is not scholarly.
Since
we have instructed you to pay attention to notation and bibliographic style,
and have provided you with a specific place to look for the proper styles, we will take points off of your paper if you
do not do this in the correct manner. This is simple. If you do not do
it correctly it means one or both of the following: 1) you are not taking the
assignment seriously; and/or 2) you are doing the paper at the last minute.
Both of these are good reasons why you will not get the grade you are able to
earn.
Bibliography:
The bibliography is a list of all the sources you’ve used. List anything
you found useful even if it only confirmed information you found in other
places, even if you have not cited the source in the paper; you don’t realize
how much you learned from sources even if you don’t reference specific
information from them. The bibliography
is listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. There may be no
author or you may get info from a website. See the above resources for the
rules on that.
What do I need to cite? That’s a question
students ask all the time. This section describes why and when you cite
information. In doing research there are three basic types of things you must
cite: quotes, specific information, and other people’s ideas.
·
Do Cite: Quotes: This is a short paper. Try not to quote.
Some people think that you only need to cite quotes. You do need to cite
quotes, but here you don’t want to quote unless it’s a word or two from a
government official whose exact words matter. See below on the proper use of
quotes. But you absolutely need to cite much more than quotes in social
science.
·
Do Cite: Specific
Information: When we say specific information, what we refer to is
any information which is not general knowledge. For example,
you would not need to use a citation if you state that Henry Kissinger was
Richard Nixon’s National Security Adviser in Nixon’s first term (general
knowledge). But you would have to cite the fact that Kissinger met with
Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai on July 9, 1971 and any details of the
meeting.
·
Do Cite: Other People’s
Ideas: If you’re doing research and you’re thinking about the issue you’re
researching, any idea that is not yours absolutely must be cited. Take the
issue of Chinese grand strategy mentioned above. Let’s say you read in Doshi’s
book that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s goals to return China to great power
status really aren’t new goals formulated by Xi, but a continuation of Chinese
goals that date back to the collapse of the Qing dynasty in the early 20th
century. You want to make that point in your paper. You agree with Doshi (or maybe you don’t
agree with Doshi). Either way, you want to include that point in your paper (to
agree or to disagree). Since the idea
comes from Doshi, you need to cite the idea (Doshi 2021, p. 31).
If you are referring to specific information that you found on a specific page in a source (if the source has page numbers, unlike some web sources), you must include the page number where you found the information. Let’s say you found information in a book that is 450 pages long. Citing the book and not the page number is not very helpful for anyone who thought that the information was interesting and wanted to learn more about it. You’re forcing that person to scan through 450 pages of text to find the info. Instead, cite the exact page number where you found the information and then the reader can just turn to that page number. This is the established method of citation. This is true even for parenthetical references. If you are citing the main point of an article or book or something as background information, you don’t need the page number, but if it is specific material, it does need a page number.
This paper only uses endnotes (but these rules are the same for footnotes if you use them for other classes). In the social sciences, endnotes are numbered consecutively. The first note is number 1; the second is number 2, etc. Microsoft Word will do this for you. You can use a source more than once in your paper. There are specific citation formats for the first citation and for the second citation. You can also put more than one source in a specific note. See my article for examples for all of this: Endnotes/Footnotes. A short reference follows:
·
Footnotes
and endnotes are numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3, 4…) (Unless you use the
natural sciences-style that merges the bibliography and citations as explained
above)
This is the key to writing a good paper so I am providing
detailed instruction on this. Political Science has a specific style of
writing, especially when it comes to introductory paragraphs. It mirrors the style of government
memoranda. In short, the introductory
paragraph should summarize the paper and that includes giving the reader a
summary of your conclusions. If you
don’t do this, even a great paper, becomes a grade of B.
A good introductory paragraph should include the following:
·
your
topic; or the question you are answering if you set up the issue that way
·
how
you will answer the question
·
what
are the basic answers to the questions regarding your issue -- your conclusions
In other words, the introduction should provide your reader
with a "road map" that explains exactly what you will say during the
paper. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Basically, what you need to do is
write the outline you have for your paper in sentences in the first few
paragraphs of the paper. Your opening paragraph (or couple of opening
paragraphs) should also give the reader some reason to be interested in your
topic and in your argument. Tell the reader why this subject is important. Here
is an example of an opening paragraph: (I’ll use a topic that won’t overlap
with anyone’s potential topic.) This
paragraph is based on a paper that I wrote for a conference in 2022. I’ve added parentheses to indicate what purpose
that sentence serves. These are just for illustration purposes; you should not
do that in your paper.
In the summer of
2021, open-source intelligence and US government intelligence discovered what
appeared to be new Chinese ICBM silos under construction at two locations in
the interior of China (tells the reader the subject). The US should
assume that these new deployments are just the beginning of a large and
sustained Chinese effort to match US and Russian nuclear capability (tells
the reader the paper’s assumptions). All our current theoretical paradigms
suggest that China, as a rising power, will try to challenge US hegemony (tells
the reader the perspective of the paper.) Realist theory predicts that an
up-and-coming challenger will try to balance against or even replace US
regional and global power. Liberalism
explains global stability and cooperation as a result of common values and
shared interests in a rule-based international order; rising powers will seek
to change those rules. Constructivism
sees nation-states foreign policies as derived from cultural and historical
factors. It might predict that Chinese foreign policy will seek to right the
perceived wrongs of Chinese history by returning China to its rightful,
dominant position in East Asia (these three descriptions give the three
theoretical perspectives). Given that nuclear weapons are a fundamental
part of any superpower’s power and status, the US needs to prepare for a new
nuclear age where the US, Russia, and China are equals, and where Chinese
nuclear strategists debate the wisdom of assured destruction or
warfighting-based nuclear doctrines just as the US did during the Cold
War. US efforts should turn toward
helping China become a “responsible stakeholder” of the nuclear balance by
engaging China in the types of confidence and security building measures as
well as arms control that heralded the détente relationship between the US and
the USSR (these sentences give the reader the recommendations).
So, this paragraph tells me what you think, summarizes why you think that is true, and explains how you will illustrate your point.
You can
use lots of topic headings and subheadings to correspond to the points on your
"road map" -- they'll help you organize your thoughts, and they'll
help your reader clearly identify where he is on the "road map." The
above paper might have six main paragraphs:
o
Introduction:
Your intro paragraph(s)
o
Background
on the Chinese nuclear developments
o
What
realism predicts about Chinese foreign policy
o
What
liberalism predicts about Chinese foreign policy
o
What
constructivism predicts about Chinese foreign policy
o
Conclusion/Recommendations
As you
make the points that support your argument, you'll probably be aware of the
places in which your argument is controversial or in which a reasonable person
might disagree with you. Preempt those controversies in your text. Point out
what those opposing arguments might be, and why you think your point of view is
more accurate or reasonable.
1.
Use
quotes sparingly. We want your writing, not anyone else’s. If there is a great quote from a direct
participant in the event, a phrase, or word, that you think really adds to the
paper then a quote may be appropriate here or there. But if you have a paragraph-length quote in a
six-page paper, that would be bad. I’d
be sad and after you see your grade, you’ll be sad too.
2.
Don’t
quote general information that you found in a scholarly article and don’t quote
the conclusions of other scholars.
Paraphrase the information or the idea in your own words and then cite
the source.
3.
Do
not write a sentence in your paper that quotes that information directly from
the source. For example, don’t quote
like this: “The United States included 20,000 troops.” It is basic factual
information and does not need to be quoted, but it does need to be cited. Even if it is an analyst’s opinion, it does not
need to be quoted. Just paraphrase it in
your words and cite the source.
4.
Reserve
quotes for direct participants: candidates and their staffers, or a voter. The exact words matter in these cases. In general, though, go easy on quotes.
5.
Too
many quotes means that you’re just cutting and pasting, not writing. A
research paper is not a series of quotes rearranged the way you like. It doesn’t teach you anything and your
grade will suffer horribly, terribly, and painfully.
6.
So,
for example, if noted China scholar Reed Richards says in his book that “China
does not have the amphibious landing craft to invade Taiwan.” Do not write a sentence in your paper that
reads: Reed Richards says that “China does not have the amphibious landing
craft to invade Taiwan.” It’s better to
write something that says: One scholar argues that China does not have the
naval capability to launch an amphibious landing on Taiwan.” (Add the citation
here which cites Richards’ book and the page number in it where the information
is found). The full bibliographic information will be in the bibliography at
the end of the paper.
7.
In
a larger paper, but not in this one, sometimes quotes are useful. A good quote is this one. In his October 2022
work report to the 20th Communist Party Congress, Xi Jinping stated that “We will
continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and
the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force, and
we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary.” His
exact words are important. (And cite the
source; by the way the source is: Lyle Morris. “Listen to Xi Jinping about
Taiwan.” War on the Rocks, November 18, 2022, https://warontherocks.com/2022/11/listen-to-xi-jingping-about-taiwan/
8.
In
any case: Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever cut and paste anything from a
source into your document unless you place it in quotes and cite the source of
the quote. And generally, in a paper
that is under a few dozen papers, there is never a need to quote anything that
is not an official source. Why quote
anything unless the exact words are crucial?
So, quoting a President or Foreign Minister or a witness to an event is
useful, but quoting a scholar or journalist is not.
First, never,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever cut and paste anything from a source into your
document unless you place it in quotes and cite the source of the quote. And
generally, in a paper that is under a few dozen papers, there is never a need
to quote anything that is not an official source. Why quote anything unless the exact words are
crucial? So, quoting a President or
Foreign Minister or a witness to an event is useful, but quoting a scholar or
journalist is not. For the purposes of
this paper, there is no reason to quote anyone. The paper is too short for
quotes.
This is really not a fine line. Did you write the sentence or not? Did you
come up with the idea or not? When in
doubt, it’s relatively simple: never include something in your paper that you
did not write unless it is placed in quotes, and then it also must be cited. Anything that is not your idea must be cited.
Plagiarism is a violation of the VCU Honor Code and I will not hesitate to
charge someone with a violation if I catch plagiarism. If you have questions about plagiarism, ask
me or see VCU’s Writing
Integrity Workshop.
But just because someone else has already written an idea that
you agree with 100% doesn't mean you can't discuss it in your paper. Just point
out whose idea it is; paraphrase it in your own words, cite the source of the
idea, and expand upon it. Generally, that is how Political Science works. 90%
of all Political Science articles and books do the following (I give you
another example that is not topically relevant to the class):
There are various explanations for the Clinton
administration’s decision to grant China permanent most favored nation trading
status. Barton accuses the Clinton administration of hypocrisy, campaigning on
a human rights platform only to abandon it once in power and satisfying the
business community revealed itself as the real priority.[1]
Rogers argues that Clinton learned during his first year of office that
sanctions on China would accomplish very little and only slow and steady
engagement would ultimately improve China’s human rights situation over the
long term.[2]
Romanoff focuses on the internal bargaining within the administration and the
ability of President Clinton’s economic advisors to best a human-rights first
coalition of advisors from the State Department and NSC staff.[3] Each of these arguments has merit. A
combination of the second and third arguments, emphasizing Bill Clinton’s
learning process, holds the most explanatory power.
The article would then outline the theories of Barton, Rogers, and Romanoff, analyze each one, and then develop the fourth theory. There is no problem as long as Barton, Rogers, and Romanoff get credited with developing their theories, and the fourth theory is yours. If the fourth theory belongs to a fourth author (Banner? Danvers? Fury?), the author should be credited and your article will show why his theory is superior to the other three. The point here is that you may find sources which have different opinions on an issue.
If paraphrasing an idea: make sure to change the verb you use so it is different from the verb used in the source. Make sure you change everything but the proper nouns. So, let’s say, you’ve read this in your source: “The President phoned the Prime Minister immediately after he received the news.” That may be the point you want to make in your paper, but you shouldn’t quote that and can’t copy it (or you’d be plagiarizing). The only words you really can use here would be “President” and “Prime Minister.” These are the proper nouns. So put it into your own words. How about: “Once the President had been informed, he contacted the Prime Minister.” And then cite the source of the information. That would not be a quote problem or a suspicion of plagiarism
And never, ever, ever, ever,
ever, ever cut and paste anything from a source into your document unless you
place it in quotes and cite the source of the quote. (He said it again! And in italics! Must mean
something!)
1. Margins and Font Papers should be doubled-spaced with one-inch margins, and reasonably sized font (11 or 12 point). Shorter pages with wide margins and large print size fonts will be penalized.
2. Subject and Verb Make sure you have a subject and verb in every sentence. (You would be surprised how many important journals and books allow non-sentence sentences). This is non-fiction, not fiction. So, you need to observe the basic rules of grammar. A long sentence is not necessarily a better sentence -- each sentence should express only one thought. Don't be afraid to break up a long sentence into two or three shorter ones. It will usually flow better that way.
3. Official Titles Provide someone’s title in the text the first time you mention them if they are an elected official (Tim Kaine, Governor of Virginia) or an appointed official (Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Paul Nitze). Thereafter, you can refer to them as Kaine or Nitze. So, for the first mention, you’d say: “National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger told his assistant to.…” From that point on, you can simply say “Kissinger told his assistant to…” When you mention a senator or representative, say: Senator John Warner (R-VA) to introduce and after that you can just say Warner or Senator Warner.
4. Keep a Copy Make a copy of the paper for yourself before you hand it in to me. There are two reasons for this. If you have a copy, you don't have to worry about me losing a copy. I have never lost anyone's paper, but just in case you should always make sure that you have a copy of your paper with you, in any class, not just this one.
5. Back up WHEN YOU TYPE YOUR PAPER ON A COMPUTER MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP DISK WITH THE PAPER ON IT. AS YOU TYPE THE PAPER SAVE THE FILE TO THE BACKUP DISK EVERY TEN MINUTES OR SO. Don’t just leave it on your hard drive and hope it will be safe. A super safe way to deal with this is to use your own, already built-in cloud system. Email the drafts of your paper to yourself and then you know it will be safe on the VCU system and you can access it from anywhere on the planet. Also, remember that if you type on the university computers be careful. Putting your paper on the hard drive in the computer lab is risky – they sweep the hard drives of files at night. Keep a backup copy for yourself. I have several backup copies of anything I write. You don't ever want to lose work because you didn't back it up.
6. No Wikipedia Do not use Wikipedia or any other web-based encyclopedia. It is unreliable and you should have stopped using encyclopedias for research in elementary school.
7. Reliability of the Internet Be careful about internet sources. Make sure the source is reliable. Remember that anyone can post anything on the internet. There aren’t necessarily any editors or fact checkers. For example, there is a website that links me to the Kennedy assassination; I was two years old. Ask me if you have questions about this (internet sources, not if I was involved in the Kennedy assassination; I wasn’t).
8. The use of “I”: Try to avoid using “I” in non-fiction. Instead of “I will discuss three problems…” say “This essay addresses three problems…”
9. The use of a semicolon: Semicolons connect two complete sentences that are related to each other. For example: “I went to the pizzeria to get a pie; it was closed so I had Chinese food instead.” You could also write them as two separate sentences if you wanted. The following would be an incorrect use of a semicolon: “I had six very tasty pizzas last week; except for that crappy one from the big chain store.” That should be a comma, not a semicolon. The test is this: If the two sentences you are connecting with a semicolon could stand alone as complete sentences, then use a semicolon. So, it becomes obvious: “Except for that crappy one from the big chain store” is not a sentence.
10. The use of “however”: “However” trips everyone up. It’s a bit similar to semicolons. “I went to the pizzeria; however, when I got there, it was closed.” Notice the semicolon, not the comma. That’s because “When I got there, it was closed” could be a complete sentence by itself. Also, this sentence is like the use of a semicolon. You are connecting two complete sentences. In this case, you’re connecting two sentences that are related, but related in a very specific way. The second sentence is adding the “however” to show a different expectation than the first sentence implies. The first sentence implies you were going to eat pizza. The second sentence says you didn’t. On the other hand, look at this example: “I went to the pizzeria. Upon arriving, however, I found out it was closed.” The “however” is surrounded by commas. That’s because “upon arriving” is not a sentence by itself. Here’s another aspect of this. “I went to the pizzeria, the one with the best pizza in the world.” There is a comma there because “the one with the best pizza in the world” is not a sentence by itself. These are the non-fiction rules. In fiction, you can do anything you want.
11. Some useful rules:
1.
Numbers
under 100 should be written as out. So,
you would not have this sentence.
“President Bush met with 3 advisors.”
It would be “President Bush met with three advisors.”
2.
When
you have an acronym, such as NSDD-75 or UN.
First write out the name in full: National Security Decision Directive
(NSDD) 75, or United Nations (UN). After that first use of the term, use the
acronym.
Papers are due at the beginning of class on the date indicated in the syllabus. After about 10 minutes of class has passed, your paper is one day late. That is true for the rough draft and the final draft in cases where a rough draft is mandatory. I will mark late papers down ONE GRADE for each day late. That means that an almost perfect paper -- one that I would give 98 points to -- becomes an 88 if one day late, 78 if two days late, etc., all the way down to 8 points if nine days late, and zero points if ten days late.
In classes where a rough draft is mandatory (if the rough draft is optional, ignore this): These deductions count for both the rough and final draft. For example, if you turn in the rough draft one day late and the final draft one day late, you will have twenty points deducted from your paper grade. For the rough draft the maximum penalty is 50 points for five days late that will be deducted from the final grade. If you don’t turn in a rough draft that will be 50 points off.
Talk to me if you are having some family or personal problems. If there is a serious need to get an extension on the paper, I will give you an extension. I do realize that there are more important things in life than this class and this assignment. So, if you run into a problem, talk to me. Computer problems do not count as a problem that warrants an extension. If you are writing your paper at the last minute and you have a problem, the moral of the story is that you should not have been writing your paper at the last minute. If you have a printer problem, that doesn’t have to be a problem. Give me your disk and I will print up the paper, or come to my office hours and we'll print up the paper at my office. If you have some kind of computer problem, and you are not writing your paper at the last minute, let me know. Maybe I can help.