POLI
369
US
National Security
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.
The Paper Topic and Role Assignments
Numbering Endnotes or Footnotes
Nitpicks and
Style Issue (or Helpful hints)
Over
two class periods at the end of the term the class will simulate the national
security decision making process. Each
of you will be assigned the role of a US governmental official with
responsibilities for some aspect of US national security (officials in the
Defense Department or National Security Council Staff or Intelligence
Community, for example) You will be
given a national security problem to solve and guidance about what perspective
you should focus upon. For example, the
problem this semester is the civil war in Syria and intelligence that suggests
Iran is about to intervene to keep President Assad in power (fictional, but
based on real possibilities).
You
will write a 1-2 page executive summary presenting options for how to deal with
the issue (from the perspective of the role you have been assigned; for
example, if you are the Assistant Secretary of State for International
Organizations, you will focus on multilateral options for solving the problem;
if you are the Director of CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis, your research
will focus on the counterterrorism implications of any US options to an Iranian
intervention – if the US were to bomb Iran, how would Hezbollah react…).
You
will be required to hand in a rough
draft of the summary (at a date indicated on the syllabus) and a final version
(at a date indicated on the syllabus).
The rough draft is intended to give me an opportunity to help you out
with the style of an executive summary and give you an opportunity to rewrite
the executive summary based on my comments.
Your final draft should also be emailed to me so I can make it available
to all students in the class. These
final papers are the equivalents of department or agency reports that are
disseminated to all decision makers before an interagency meeting.
The
paper is your work alone, but the role-playing simulation is a group exercise.
Once the research is done and I have made comments on both drafts of your
paper, we’ll begin the role-playing simulation: a two day in class exercise where
you will develop a draft presidential directive spelling out the options for US
policy in case of an Iranian intervention in Syria. I will prepare a detailed agenda for these
sessions. Essentially, you will first
meet with the other members of your department or agency then you will meet
within the interagency committee to which you’ve been assigned. In these interagency committees you’ll negotiate
to come up with a draft presidential directive that includes all your
perspectives, evaluates the pros and cons of various US options, develops a
government-wide consensus, or spells out where consensus could not be achieved
and why.
Every
aspect of this exercise (your research and the role-playing simulation) will be
guided by a draft Presidential Review Directive where I will spell out what
questions I want answered in the Presidential Directive (and in your papers). For samples of actual presidential directives,
follow this link.
After
you graduate, you will take a job, maybe in the government, maybe in the
private sector. Either way, you will
probably not be the CEO. You will be
working for someone else and your job will probably be based on your ability to
help your boss do a good job. There will
be two key elements to that: information and communication. Your ability to provide your boss with high
quality and high reliability information will be one key challenge. Your ability to communicate that information
to your boss in an easy to digest form will be the other key. Think of it this way: Assume that I am the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. I have to report to the Undersecretary of
Defense for Political Affairs on threats to US national security (everything
from Chinese cruise missile development to the impact of Pakistani public
education on radicalization among urban youth in Karachi). I can’t read a book
on each one of these subjects. Also, I
have eight zillion other responsibilities.
I can devote about five minutes to any specific issue, so I need for you
(my chief deputy) to give me the information I need in a very short report that
will tell me everything I need to know about the issue in under five
minutes. That’s the life of a busy
public or private sector executive. You,
as the deputy, have to provide your boss with what he/she needs: one to two
pages that tell him/her what he/she needs to know. You’re the expert and you need to provide
that expertise in a format that is succinct, clear, and informative.
The Elements of
an Executive Summary
There
are many ways to think about an executive summary, but here is what I think is
the best way. How you break this down into paragraphs is up to you, but
suggestions are made below.
The
following are links to examples from Rand Corporation documents. These are on line executive summaries of
larger documents, which are also on line.
If you go to Rand’s main web site (www.rand.org) and look
under publications, you will find summaries of almost all their documents
included with the documents themselves.
Rand is funded mostly by the US government, so most of what they publish
is available on line for free to the good taxpayers of the US. Most of these
summaries are longer than yours has to be, but the papers they are summarizing
are also longer than your hypothetical paper.
These links will take you to the document where you can click in the
full document or the summary.
·
Brian A. Jackson, David R. Frelinger, Emerging
Threats and Security Planning: How Should We Decide What Hypothetical Threats
to Worry About? (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2009), Available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP256/
·
The assigned reading for this class Global Trends
2035, also has an executive summary that will help you understand the format.
See National Intelligence Council, Office of the Director
of National Intelligence. Global Trends
2035: Paradoxes of Progress, January 2017. https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Full-Report.pdf
I will be adding a sample executive summary that
will be linked to this assignment here. Here is a link to the bibliography for the sample executive summary.
This is an executive summary based on a role that is not assigned in the
class (Chairman of the State Department Policy Planning Council) and a research
question that is different from the ones you are being asked to research. When you see the endnotes and bibliography,
don’t worry. Your paper doesn’t need to have that many sources or
endnotes. You are required to have 10
sources and at least 10 endnotes. I have
a huge number of sources and my endnotes are all contain multiple sources. That is not required of you. This executive summary is based in part off
of a larger article I wrote several years ago. Here is a link to the article just in case you want to take a look at how
something over 30 pages becomes only two pages.
Each
of you will be assigned a role for the role-playing simulation. This role will also define your paper
topic. For example, as mentioned above,
if you are the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations,
you will focus on multilateral options for solving the problem; if you are the
Director of CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis, your research will focus on the
counterterrorism implications of any US options to an Iranian intervention – if
the US were to bomb Iran, how would Hezbollah react…).
You
will be given a chance to state a preference for your role in the first few
weeks of class. We’ll be having a map
quiz and on the back of the map quiz will be the list of roles for the
role-playing simulation. You will
identify your first, second, and third choices and I’ll do my best to get
everyone a role they are interested in.
Each role has a bit of a perspective and I will give a brief summary of
that perspective for each role. More
detail will be provided in the Presidential Review Directive that I will
provide during the first few weeks of the semester. This PRD will assign tasks for each specific
role and provide the questions the president needs answered by you, the
experts. The PRD will also identify the
interagency committee assignments for everyone.
Read the PRD before you decide what role you’d like to play. Since the
PRD will spell out the research assignment for each role, you’ll be able to
decide what research assignment you want, within limits. The limits are that we
have 40-55 people in the class. On the day
of the map quiz you will have a chance to tell me what are your first, second,
and third choices for your role. I’ll
try to give everyone one of their top three choices, but that doesn’t always
work out. Also, consider the simulation days. Everyone will participate, but if
you’re a little bit shy in large groups, you may not want to be Secretary of
State or National Security Advisor, roles that require you to play one of the
larger roles.
When
finished, the PRD will be linked here
The
Roles (some of this may change when assignments are given out (depending on how
many people are enrolled in the class).
You’ll also note that these roles are listed by hierarchy in the
department/agency, but that will not mean that you’ll have less to do or a less
important role if you are an Assistant Secretary rather than a Deputy
Secretary. Your role will be equally
important to the outcome of the role-playing simulation.
The
importance of the specific roles is to illustrate that different people in
different departments/agencies have different perspectives and even the
perspectives of people from different bureaus in the same agency may differ. You research should not be an examination of
what the official does, but an analysis of a specific problem related to our
role-playing simulation that comes from the perspective of a specific
governmental office. As an example: The
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor may look at
the potential of an Iranian intervention into Syria as an event that would
compound an already disastrous human rights tragedy. The Director of CIA’s Office of Terrorism
Analysis might be more concerned with how Iranian intervention would enhance
Iran’s to assist Hezbollah or maybe the official might see Iran and Hezbollah’s
intervention in Syria as a problem for them: discrediting their revolutionary
credentials as they support a dictator like Assad or maybe they got bogged in
the Syrian civil war and Syria becomes Iran’s “Vietnam.” The point is to gain the perspective of the
official (I’ll help with that) and not worry about whom that official actually
is or the day to day issues of the office.
Below
I’ve given a brief description of the office and its main mission. This will give you a starting point in
helping you decide which official you’d like to play in the role-playing
simulation. The PRD will give a bigger
picture.
The
list of roles is linked to the actual office if possible; sometimes this will
provide useful information and sometimes it won’t. For some White House-based assistants, such
as the National Security Council staff links are not available. For other roles
where there are no links, use the links for the main Department page for any
info you might want. The links to the official websites are not necessary for
your research. If they exist, I provide
them just because I can.
Department of State The State Department is the primary arm of US
diplomacy. It contains all US Embassies
and a large bureaucracy which analyzes nations and international events to
provide expertise for the secretary and the president.
Secretary
of State This is the senior US diplomat and president’s chief
foreign policy advisor (in theory). The
secretary’s job is to see the big picture of US foreign affairs. The secretary is typically a major political
figure in his/her own right and may have been a presidential contender. Because of this the secretary will have a
keen eye for the domestic political impact of any foreign policy choices.
·
Deputy Secretary of State The deputy secretary
is an alter ego to the secretary. The secretary
is often out of the country and in these cases the deputy takes the secretary’s
place at interagency meetings. The secretary
and the deputy often negotiate a division of labor (where the deputy manages the
department or the deputy has responsibility over certain areas of the world
that need less of the secretary’s attention).
Again, the focus in this role is the big picture of US foreign policy.
§
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs
Number three in the department. This
official supervises all the functional and regional bureaus. The analytical tasks of the department are
supervised here. Again the focus is on
the big political picture. How will
events and the US response to those events influence the global balance of
power, the regional balance of power, the US relationship with its allies, and
its rivals, and its “frenemies?”
§
US Ambassador to the United
Nations This official continues to have a growing role. The Ambassador represents the US at the
United Nations and negotiates with other nations to work out multilateral
stances on many issues that appear before the UN. For example, if the US wants a UN Security
Council resolution to condemn ran or Syria, this official does the negotiating
with other nations UN Ambassadors. Often
this official is made a non-statutory member of the US National Security
Council.
§ Under
Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security This
official supervises the more political-military side of the department’s
analytical offices. In some ways, this
person supervises the State Department’s “defense department” that looks at the
interplay of political and military factors that influence international
diplomacy.
§ Assistant Secretary of State for Near
Eastern Affairs (NEA) The bureau that concerns itself with the
political-military-economic aspects of US relations with nations in the Near
East. This really means the Middle East,
but the name is left over from past decisions.
Geographically, this is from Morocco to Iran, North Africa, the Arabian
Peninsula, and the Gulf States.
§ Assistant Secretary of State for
Europe and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) The bureau that focuses on US relations
with Europe and Russia. The term Eurasia
is the term for all the states that used to be part of the Soviet Union, but
are now independent states, even members of NATO. US relations with the EU fit
here as well. This is a huge area and includes everything from Finland to
Turkey (North-South) and Iceland to Russia (East-West).
§ Assistant
Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (IO) The bureau
that focuses specifically on US diplomacy within international organizations,
everything from the UN, to the Arab league, to the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (in the context of this scenario).
This bureau examines how events and US response to those events will
play out in these international organizations.
§ Assistant Secretary of State for
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) This bureau has its roots in the
1970s when the House of Representatives began to make human rights issues a
more important part of US foreign policy.
It considers other nations human rights policies and the impact of conflict
on individuals caught in the crossfire (refugees, the problems of civilian
casualties, ethnic cleansing, genocide)
Department of Defense This department has the role of organizing the nation’s
defense capability, both planning and execution. It is run by civilians, but it includes the
uniformed military officers who actually engage in military operations.
Secretary of
Defense This is the president’s chief advisor on defense
matters. Sometimes the SecDef will lean
more toward a management role, focusing on the task of making sure the US has
the weaponry and manpower it needs to fight wars. Other SecDefs have become important policy
advisors, rivaling the secretary of state as the chief foreign and national security
policy confidante of the president. The
focus here is the big picture – perhaps the military balance and its
implications or perhaps even broader than that.
·
Deputy Secretary of Defense The deputy secretary
is an alter ego to the secretary. The secretary
and the deputy often negotiate a division of labor (where the deputy manages
the department or the deputy has responsibility over certain areas of the world
that need less of the secretary’s attention).
Again, the focus in this role is the big picture of US
political-military preparedness.
§
Under Secretary of Defense for
Policy This official supervises all the functional bureaus in the Office of
the Secretary of Defense. The analytical
tasks of the department are supervised here.
Again the focus is on the big political-military picture. How will global and regional
political-military trends and the US response to those trends influence the
global balance of power and regional balance of power?
§
Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence
This official supervises all Department of Defense intelligence assets (and
that’s a lot). Each of the military
services has an intelligence arm and the DoD also has the National Security
Agency, the defense Intelligence Agency, and the intelligence units of all the
Combatant Commands. This official works
with the DNI and CIA to get a big picture of what we know about our rivals and
allies political-military capabilities and developments.
§
Assistant
Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs This office has
sometimes been called the Department of Defense’s own State Department. It looks at the political aspects of changes
in the global and regional balance of power, keeping a focus on alliances and
rivalries region-by-region, nation-by-nation.
§
Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs This is a new office which focuses
on issues of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, missile defense,
cybersecurity, and space-related issues.
It essentially is looking at all the post-cold war issues of a world
where more and more nations have greater and greater capability to pose threats
to the US in ways we are just beginning to think about.
·
JCS Chair (for all offices below, use the
Chairman’s page) The Chairman of the JCS is the principal military advisor to
the president and the secretary of defense.
He is not in the chain of command for military operations, but has the
task of advising the NSC on military capabilities and strategy of the US, its
allies, and enemies. This official is a
uniformed military officer. The Joint
Staff, large bureaucracy of military officers (typically with Master’s degrees
and PhDs in public policy, international affairs, or technical areas), works
directly for the Chair of the JCS.
§
Vice Chair The Vice Chair is an alter ego to the
Chair and helps supervise the Joint Staff.
The Vice Chair is essentially the deputy to the chair. The two may create a division of labor in
supervising the Joint Staff and in working for the secretary of defense.
o
Joint Staff Representative (J-5) Both of these officials
are uniformed military officers who are members of the Joint Staff
bureaucracy. They will serve on the
Joint Staff for a number of years as they rotate from assignment to assignment
during their military careers. These
officials are all from the Directorate of Strategic Plans and Policy (the Joint Staff is divided into
eight Directorates, each with a specific area of expertise). For the purposes of this role-playing
simulation, we’ll have two members of the Joint Staff: one with an expertise in
the Middle East and one with an expertise in counterterrorism).
Department of Energy The DoE is an important element of national security. It runs the US nuclear weapons infrastructure
(they make them; the DoD would use them.)
The secretary of energy is a member of the NSC (since 2007). This is the
department that has the expertise in understanding how a nation like Iran would
be able to take its nuclear energy infrastructure and turn it into a nuclear
weapons infrastructure. Another
responsibility of the DoE is to look at the issue of energy itself --- the
world and US future energy supply, the impact of disruptions to energy supply
or events that will lead to an increase in the price of energy think Middle
East; think oil; think of what happens if there is a wider war in the Middle
East.
Secretary of Energy The head of
the agency. The secretary would have
his/her eye on the big picture related to the above issues and perhaps greater
attention to the domestic aspects of all these issues than the lower levels of
the DoE.
·
Deputy Secretary of Energy The deputy secretary
is an alter ego to the secretary. The secretary
and the deputy often negotiate a division of labor. The big picture aspects are the crucial ones
for the deputy.
o
Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security (runs the National
Nuclear Security Administration). This
official and the NNSA has a huge mandate: from managing the US nuclear
stockpile, to countering nuclear proliferation, to countering nuclear
terrorism. The focus here will be on the
counter proliferation and counterterrorism issue.
Department of the Treasury The Treasury Department is in charge of economic issues for
the US government, everything from thinking about the future of the US economy
to the deficit to the budget to trade to the impact of world events on the
global and regional economy.
Secretary
of the Treasury: The secretary manages the department and is the chief
economic advisor to the president and typically is included in the NSC process
to make sure the economic impact of national security issues is considered when
decisions are made. This official will
often be focused on the impact of foreign events on the US economy.
·
Deputy
Secretary of the Treasury:
The deputy secretary is an alter ego to the secretary. The secretary and the deputy often negotiate
a division of labor. The big picture aspects are the crucial ones for the deputy.
o
Under Secretary of the
Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Analysis
Terrorists and those involved in illegal weapons proliferation cannot function
without money. This official heads the
office that tries to keep track of the flow of that money and to find ways of
disrupting that flow.
Department of Justice This is the department that deals with all the legal issues
of the functioning of US government and US government policies. Congress may pass laws, but it is the
department of Justice (along with the White House Counsel’s Office) that
interprets the meaning of the laws and the methods of making law into policy
into a legal manner. (Ultimately the US
Supreme Court may rule on the initial law and whether that law has been
“faithfully executive” by the executive branch.)
Attorney
General the head of the Justice department and typically asked to
be a non-statutory member of the NSC.
His/her job is to consider the international and domestic implications
of US national security policy.
·
Deputy Attorney General The deputy secretary
is an alter ego to the secretary. The secretary
and the deputy often negotiate a division of labor. The big picture aspects are
the crucial ones for the deputy.
·
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation The
FBI Director is the principal federal law enforcement official. His bureau is
in charge of investigating terrorist attacks both in the US and abroad.
·
Executive Assistant Director of the FBI for National Security
After the September 11 attacks the National Security Branch of the FBI was
created. This branch has responsibility
for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, the FBI’s efforts to combat
trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, and the Terrorist Screening Center.
Department of Homeland Security The newest cabinet department (2002) and the one charged
with everything from border security to emergency response to counterterrorism.
It is also one of the agencies that deal on cyber security (as an essential
part of the mission of critical infrastructure protection). Its counterterrorism mission is one that
requires working with other departments and agencies.
Secretary
of Homeland Security The secretary may look at foreign events in the context of
how those events and the US response could spark problems in the US (such as
terrorist reprisals against the US homeland).
The secretary is typically a non-statutory member of the NSC and one of
the key statutory members of the Homeland Security Council.
·
Deputy Secretary of Homeland
Security The deputy secretary is an alter ego to the secretary. The secretary and the deputy often negotiate
a division of labor. The big picture aspects are the crucial ones for the deputy.
o
Assistant Secretary of Homeland
Security for Policy This official runs the analysis and planning aspects of
the department. It is a big picture
position always looking at the implications of events and US responses to the
mission of counterterrorism and cyber security (in the context of our
scenario).
National
Security Council Staff (NSC staff) The Obama administration merged the NSC staff with
the Homeland Security Council’s staff (the Office of Homeland Security) and the
new staff was dubbed the National Security Staff, but it has since been renamed
the National Security Council Staff.
We’ll spend a lot of time talking about this. The short version is that this staff has
evolved into the president’s personal foreign and national security policy
bureaucracy. It replicates all the
functions of the rest of the executive branch agencies that deal with national
security affairs, but it is smaller, faster, loyal to the president, and
appointed by the president, but no confirmed by the Senate (nor do staff
members have to appear before Congress).
The president can also organize anyway he wishes without any statutory
complications. It focuses on whatever
the president wants it to focus on.
Assistant
to the President for National Security Affairs (National
Security Advisor): The National Security Advisor manages the NSC Staff and has
become and has become the president’s most important national security advisor
and alter ego for the president on national security affairs. His/her office is just down the hall from the
president’s in the West Wing of the White House. This official generally runs the NSC process
on behalf of the president, chairing the NSC/PC and often even the NSC. The focus of this official is the big picture, everything from the
day-to-day politics of every event and policy all the way to the implications
for the next fifty years.
·
Deputy
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (Deputy National Security
Advisor): This is the deputy to the National Security Advisor and chair of the
NSC/DC. The Deputy is often next in line
for National Security Advisor position.
This official’s interests are the same as the National Security
Advisors. Often this official takes on
the management of the entire NSC process (from the NSC/DC down to the NSC/PCCs
and other working groups that may be formed).
·
Deputy
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs/Assistant to President
for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (Deputy National Security Advisor; Homeland Security
Advisor): This position has evolved.
After the September 11 attacks, the GW Bush administration created a
White House Office of Homeland Security (a Homeland Security Staff like the old
NSC staff) run by a Homeland Security Advisor, who was equal in stature to the
National Security Advisor. When the Obama administration merged the NSC staff
and the Office of Homeland Security staff, the Homeland Security Advisor became
this official. He/she manages the
interagency process on counterterrorism issues.
o
Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning: The NSC
Staff is divided up into small offices with Senior Directors for specific
issues. This is the senior director for global strategic issues, such as the
global and regional balances of power, US alliances, US global and regional
reputation, and long-term strategic issues.
o
Special Assistant to the President
and Senior Director for Non-Proliferation: The NSC
Staff is divided up into small offices with Senior Directors for specific
issues. This official is the Senior
Director for non-proliferation and is in charge of managing that office and the
interagency process for non-proliferation issues.
o
Special Assistant to the President
and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf
Region: The NSC Staff is divided up into small offices with Senior
Directors for specific issues This official is the senior director for the NSC
Staff officials who work on the Middle East and the manager of the NSC process
dealing with the Middle East.
o
Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights: The NSC Staff is divided up into
small offices with Senior Directors for specific issues This is the NSC
staff’s director for issues related to international organizations, human
rights, humanitarian crises, women and minority rights.
o
Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
Intelligence Programs: The NSC Staff is divided up into
small offices with Senior Directors for specific issues This is the NSC
staff’s director for issues related to oversight and management of the
Intelligence Community. It is likely staffed by someone who is a career member
of the Intelligence Community (from any part of the IC) but is detailed to the
NSC staff.
o
Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
Russia and Central Asia: The NSC Staff is divided up into
small offices with Senior Directors for specific issues This is the NSC
staff’s director for issues related to the specific region of Russia and
Central Asia (basically anything that had been part of the Soviet Union).
WH Office:
·
White
House Chief of Staff:
The WH Chief of Staff is the person who runs the WH on behalf of the president. Essentially, this official manages the
government and the decision making process.
When the president makes a decision, it is this official’s job to see
that the government actually does what the president wants. This official
usually focuses on domestic policy and political strategy, leaving national
security issues to the National Security Advisor. In most case, however, this official sits in
on the NSC. The official’s main concern
here is the political aspect of national security: public opinion and Congress.
·
Director WH Office of Legislative Affairs: The Director is concerned with
how events and the US response to those events will play with Congress. Will the president be supported or opposed.
This official will know if there is any legislation or pending legislation that
bears on the policies that president might contemplate. One way of tracking this is through Congressional Research Service reports,
which track issues and legislation for the members of Congress.
Intelligence Community This is the name for the 17 agencies/offices/bureaus that do
the intelligence work of the US government.
Director of
National Intelligence Since the 2004 Intelligence Reform and
Terrorism Prevention Act the DNI has run the intelligence community. This official’s job is to put all the
intelligence from the entire IC together into an analysis that president and
his advisors can use to make decisions.
It’s important for this official to explain to the president what the IC
is sure about, what it isn’t sure about, and what it simply does not know. This is the big picture of events that are
happening in the world. The president
gets the President’s Daily Brief (a morning briefing on what’s going on in the
world from this official or someone designated by this official).
·
Deputy
Director of National Intelligence
(use the Director’s web page for info): Again the Deputy will help manage the
IC for the Director.
o
Director
National Counterterrorism Center This office was created by the same 2004
legislation. Its job is to gather and
analyze all the intelligence from the IC that concerns terrorism.
o
Director
National Counterproliferation Center This office was created by the same
2004 legislation. Its job is to gather
and analyze all the intelligence from the IC that concerns proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
·
Director of Central Intelligence CIA
used to do the job of gathering intelligence of its own and also putting
together all the intelligence of the IC.
However, the 2004 IRTPA (rotten acronym) essentially reduced CIA’s role
by giving the big picture job to the DNI.
However, CIA still has huge intelligence assets and since 9/11 it has
developed its own paramilitary forces for counterterrorism, its own prison
system, and its own drone fleet. The DCI
is still a big picture-focused intelligence position, with a lot of clout.
o
Director
of CIA Mission Center for the Near East: This official directs the analysis of all the
CIA-gathered information on this region of the world. There are teams of CIA intelligence analysis
for every part of the world. Their
information comes from open sources (books, magazines, newspapers) and from the
information gathered in the field by the clandestine services. This official is likely to have a PhD in some
area studies.
o
Director
of CIA Mission Center for Europe and Eurasia: This official directs the analysis of all
CIA-gathered information on this region of the world. There are teams of CIA intelligence analysis
for every part of the world. Their information
comes from open sources (books, magazines, newspapers) and from the information
gathered in the field by the clandestine services. This official is likely to have a PhD in some
area studies
o
Director
of CIA Mission Center for Counterterrorism: This official directs the analysis of all the
CIA-gathered information on terrorism and should work very closely with the
NCTC. This office’s information comes
from open sources (books, magazines, newspapers) and from the information
gathered in the field by the clandestine services. This official is likely to have an advanced
degree in public policy or international affairs and/or a military or
clandestine services background.
o
Director
of CIA Mission Center for Weapons and Nonproliferation: This official directs the
analysis of all the CIA-gathered information on proliferation and arms control
and should work very closely with the NCPC.
This office’s information comes from open sources (books, magazines,
newspapers) and from the information gathered in the field by the clandestine
services. This official is likely to
have an advanced degree in public policy or international affairs.
Interagency
Groups
NSC/PC
1.
Chair:
National Security Advisor
2.
Secretary
of State
3.
Secretary
of Defense
4.
Secretary
of Energy
5.
Secretary
of Treasury
6.
Attorney
General
7.
Secretary
of Homeland Security
8.
White
House Chief of Staff
9.
Director
of National Intelligence
10.
Chair
Joint Chiefs of Staff
11.
US
Ambassador to the United Nations (State Dept)
NSC/DC
1.
Chair:
Deputy National Security Advisor
2.
Deputy
Secretary of State
3.
Deputy
Secretary of Defense
4.
Deputy
Secretary of Energy
5.
Deputy
Secretary of Treasury
6.
Deputy
Attorney General
7.
Deputy
Secretary of Homeland Security
8.
Deputy
Director of National Intelligence
9.
Director
of Central Intelligence
10.
Director,
Federal Bureau of Investigation
11.
Vice
Chair Joint Chiefs of Staff
12.
Director
WH Office of Legislative Affairs
NSC/PCCs
Middle East PCC
1. Chair: Special Assistant to the President and White House
Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region (NSC Staff)
2. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (NEA)
3. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights,
and Labor (DRL)
4. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
5. Director of CIA Missions Center for the Near East
6. Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights (NSC staff)
7. Joint Staff
Representative (J-5), Directorate of Strategic Plans and Policy (Middle East
Expert)
8. Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs (NSC
Staff)
9. Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for
Israel, Egypt, and the Levant
Proliferation/WMD PCC
1.
Chair: Special Assistant to the President and
Senior Director for Non-Proliferation (NSC Staff)
2.
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security
3. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Defense for Global
Strategic Affairs
4.
Under
Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security
5.
Director of CIA Mission Center for Weapons and
Nonproliferation
6.
Director NCPC
Counterterrorism PCC
1.
Chair: Deputy National Security
Advisor/Assistant to President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
2.
Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence
3.
Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and
Financial Analysis
4.
Director of CIA Mission Center for
Counterterrorism
5.
Director NCTC
6.
Executive Assistant Director of the FBI for
National Security
7.
Joint
Staff Representative (J-5), Directorate of Strategic Plans and Policy
(Counterterrorism expert)
Global Strategic Affairs PCC
1. Chair: Special Assistant to the President and Senior
Director for Strategic Planning (NSC Staff)
2. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs
3. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization
Affairs (IO)
4. Assistant
Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs (EUR)
5. Assistant Sec of Defense for International Security Affairs
6. Director of CIA
Mission Center for Europe and Eurasia
7. Special
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Central Asia (NSC
Staff)
The
role-playing simulation will take place over the last three class periods. We are simulating the interagency
process. Each department /agency has
been assigned various tasks to study by the PRD. Each individual has researched and written
about his/her own part of the national security issue (your papers) and each of
you has shared your executive summary with everyone else. During the role-playing simulation you’ll be
attempting to draft a presidential directive that will put all this information
and analysis together in a way that answers the questions asked by the PRD and
provides the president with a recommendation of policy options. For examples of actual presidential directives
follow this link.
The
PRD will be very specific. Each
department/agency will have a specific issue to analyze or set of questions to
answer. Each person will have a specific
issue to analyze or question to answer.
The PRD will specify the form of the presidential directive. For example, it might require two paragraphs
on Iranian military capabilities for intervention, two paragraphs on the
potential Israeli response to Iranian intervention, two paragraphs on the
impact on al-Qaeda and radicalization in general, two paragraphs on the
proliferation impact, and maybe three paragraphs on how it might impact the
overall Middle East etc…The Presidential Review Directive will assign each of
you a specific task. You’ll do the
research on it and then you’ll be the expert.
The
role-playing simulation will include two types of meetings:
1.
Department
or Agency Meetings: Everyone is a member of some department or agency. You will meet with this agency at the
beginning of the role-playing simulation to look over your reports (your
executive summaries).
2.
Interagency
Meetings in assigned committees to begin drafting the presidential directive. There are three levels of committees as shown
above. Each of the Policy Coordinating
Committees (NSC/PCCs) will have responsibility for drafting specific paragraphs
related to their area of expertise. The
Deputies Committee (NSC/DC) has the job of making sure these paragraphs answer
all the questions in the PRD. The
Principals Committee (NSC/PC) has the overall job of making sure that the
analysis pays attention to overall strategic issues – the big picture.
The
schedule will look something like this (it may be modified depending on how the
role-playing simulation proceeds):
Session One
§
Department/Agency
meetings to prepare agency priorities and policy recommendations
§
Interagency
meetings: NSC/PC, NSC/DC, all NSC/PCCs to work on ironing out interagency
differences to build consensus and policy recommendations for committees above
them in hierarchy
§
NSC/PC
to decide any directions it has for NSC/DC; NSC/DC to decide any directions it
has for NSC/PCCs
Session Two
§
Agencies
meet again if necessary at the beginning of class
§
NSC
Meets to put together draft
The
paper will include:
·
The
bibliography and end notes are separate pages and can be as long as you
like. The bibliography and end notes do
not count as part of the 1-2 pages of the executive summary.
·
In
general, use citations in the executive summary that provide the reader with
the ability to read more about every important issue mentioned in the paper
because you cite the source of that information (your endnotes). These can be
explanatory endnotes that have lots of additional information in them,
information you couldn’t fit into the 1-2 page format. (Hint,
hint; this is one of the ways to edit the paper down to 1-2 pages; you can
write a paper that is much longer than 1-2 pages then edit it down to 1-2 pages
by moving the less important info into the endnotes).
Ask me! If you have a question on where to find
sources or if you need a specific source and you can’t find it, ask me. This is what I do for a living. I have everything! Some of what I have below
is repetitive. There’s a reason for that. I do it hopes that if you skim (and
you shouldn’t, but you might), you will stop in a place that has important
information. I do it hopes that if you
skim (and you shouldn’t, but you might), you will stop in a place that has
important information.
1.
How to start looking for sources. The internet is all very nice. I
can find lots of cute dogs, and the complete box score for every Chicago Bulls
game since they entered the league in 1966, and I can find out who played the
Chief Ugnaught in The Empire Strikes Back
(Jack Purvis). But for what we’re doing
journals and books are still better. For example, if there are five a 400 page
books on the Iranian nuclear weapons program sitting in the library and 18
refereed articles, why do a google search, which will get you 135,00 sources,
but some of them have one sentence on Iran.
You may think you’re saving time by doing al your research from one
chair. You’re not. There are so many quicker ways of getting information than a
google search. Such as…
2.
Use the Library: Really!!!!
Here’s what I mean: Library
3.
Use
books and journal articles!!!!! Do not
think that you can do a good research job just by surfing the web. You can surf and surf the web and never find
the information you’re finding in web sites.
It might be far easier to walk into the library and find the three or
four books (maybe 1,000 pages specifically on the subject you’re researching,
or the dozen journal articles on that subject.
My advice: Books first, journals second (start with google.scholar),
then surf the web. (Hey, he repeated
this; maybe it’s important…)
4.
Many
journals are available through the VCU system and you can search through the
VCU library, but you may also try Google
Scholar (There it is
again. Freaky). 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. One way to use google.scholar
is to use key words for the president, the issue, and then the name of one of
the journals listed below. After doing
that, then a search under the president and the issue might get you some other
sources, but they are likely not as good.
So, for example, search under “Clinton, Bosnia, Washington Quarterly”
and you get a boatload of articles from the Washington Quarterly and other
journals as well.
5.
A
lot of this is about keywords. Let’s say
you’re research task is to look at the Saudi Arabian or Egyptian policy on the
Syrian Civil War (use Egypt or Saudi Arabia, Syria, and specify a time
frame). Or if the issue is Russian
interest in the Syrian Civil War and how it might react to efforts by the US to
use the UN Security Council to pressure Syria or Iran (use Russia, Syria, UN
Security Council). Talk to me about this and I can help.
6.
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.
7.
A
great source is the International Crisis Group.
This is an NGO that reports on crises in every region of the world.
These are the most comprehensive and detailed analyses of crisis spots that
exist.
8.
Also,
check out the Rand Corporation (www.rand.org). It is a US government
sponsored think tank that does the best analyses of national security issues.
Though it is US government sponsored, it is independent analysis and it’s the
best there is. Most of the sample
executive summaries linked to these paper instructions are from Rand.
9.
A Warning about the Web: I don't think I need to tell you
much about the web. In college I wrote papers on a manual typewriter and I took
my SATs on stone tablets. But if you do have any questions about it let me
know. An important note about internet sites: what is crucial about any webpage
is that you and I 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? The US Nazi
Party has many websites. Their information is probably not a source you want to
use for research on Israeli foreign policy, for example. Also for example, if
you find a source on Iranian foreign policy, you should know if the source is
from the Iranian government. It might have a perspective. My guess is that an Iranian government web
site and a US government website will have different views of the Iranian
nuclear program. You should recognize the difference between government web
sites and scholarly information and sadly fake news. Importantly, you need to
know who runs the site, and you need to tell me that in the citations (see
below). That’s why refereed articles are so useful.
They are reviewed and edited and fact checked.
10.
Many
think tanks have great resources in them. These collections of links are on the
syllabus and here:
a.
Links to sources
on nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and missile
defense
b.
Links to Websites on foreign policy and national
security.
11. Journals: There are dozens of journals on
national security issues as well as excellent journals on Political Science
that will have articles on domestic and foreign affairs. Scholar.google is the
way to find them. Below is a list of some that specialize in national
security/foreign affairs. Some of the best journals on national security
affairs include the following (in no particular order). The VCU libraries have almost all of these in
text or available on line).
The Best Policy-Oriented Journals
o
Foreign
Affairs (policy-oriented)
o
Foreign
Policy (policy-oriented)
o
The
National Interest (policy-oriented)
o
The
Washington Quarterly (policy-oriented)
o
Survival
(policy-oriented)
o
The
American Interest (policy-oriented)
The Best Academic/Policy-Oriented
a. Journal of Intelligence and
Counterintelligence (policy-oriented)
·
Orbis
(half policy; half academic)
·
Journal
of Strategic Studies (half academic; half policy)
·
Foreign
Policy Analysis (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)
The Best Specialized Journals
·
Georgetown
Journal of National Security Law and Policy (on legal issues related to national
security)
·
National
Security Law Journal (on legal issues related to national security)
·
Also,
remember that many Law Reviews (the best academic journals on legal affairs
will have articles on national security legal issues
·
Studies
in Conflict and Terrorism (on terrorism; policy-oriented)
·
Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists (policy; on weapons technology and its impact)
·
The Long War Journal (on terrorism; policy-oriented; only on line)
·
Terrorism
and Political Violence (on terrorism; more academic)
US Military Journals
·
Parameters
(journal of the US Army Strategic Studies Institute)
·
Military
Review (US Army Combined Arms Center)
·
Joint
Force Quarterly (journal of the Chairman of the JCS)
·
Strategic
Studies Quarterly (journal of the US Air Force Air University)
·
The
Naval War College Review (journal of the US Naval War College)
·
List of links of US and other national military journals; some think tank
journals too
Journals on the Middle East (most of these have articles on domestic
and international issues)
·
Middle
East Policy (the best for this assignment)
·
Middle
East Journal
·
International
Journal of Middle East Studies
·
The
Journal of the Middle East and Africa
Read this. Pay attention to it; or
face everlasting doom! Failure to pay attention to this will likely result in a
grade of D.
The following is not just because I
want to annoy you or because I like to have things done my 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”).
It does not matter to me what format
you use, as long as you use an established standard format for the social
sciences. You can use footnotes or endnotes or parenthetical references, but
you must learn to do it correctly. Here
are web resources that will teach you to do this:
·
Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide: the best and easiest way to get formats.
·
You
can use scholar.google.com another way.
If you found the book or article on this page, you’ll see that
underneath the small paragraph on the source is a link for “cite”. Click on that and it will you give several
already formatted citations. You can do
that even if you didn’t originally find the source on scholar.google.com. Just go to the page and search for it there,
then click the “cite” link. The properly formatted citation can be copied and
pasted directly into you bibliography. Remember, however, that these are
bibliographic formats. Footnotes and
endnotes are slightly different and have different page number rules that are
discussed below. That is very important.
·
Easy Bib
·
Bibme
·
Purdue
OWL (Online Writing Workshop)
·
Endnotes This is an
article that I wrote which has endnotes that you can use as a template. It also includes a bibliography that you can
use as a template. Endnote and footnote
citation style are the same. The only difference is where you place them in the
text. Microsoft word allows you to
choose endnotes or footnotes and to switch one to the other if you like. Ask me if you have questions on how to do
this.
Since
I 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, I 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 or are too lazy to do the paper correctly; 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.
Warning! What not to do. I realize that in
many cases instructors in ENGL 200 are telling you to include reference
material in the text of the paper. However, this is exactly the wrong way to
reference in social science. What I mean
is the following.
In
doing research there are three basic types of things you must cite: quotes,
specific information, and other people’s ideas.
Other people’s ideas are covered above under plagiarism. See the section on quotes, but that shouldn’t
be a big issue here. This is a small
paper and you should avoid quotes. When
I say specific information, what I 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 Advisor 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.
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
page number 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.
You may use only endnotes. The following is written as
if you can use footnotes or endnotes because the rules here are the same and
this might be useful for other classes. In the social sciences, footnotes and
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…)
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 you conclusions. If
you don’t do this, even a great paper, becomes a grade of B.
A good introductory paragraph should
include the following:
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.)
The Barack Obama
administration’s decision to invade increase the number of troops in
Afghanistan in 2009 can best be described as a collegial decision making
process, in which the president relied on all his advisors to give him options
and evaluations of options. However, the
final decision was made by Obama himself after close consultation with National
Security Advisor James Jones, the senior commanders in Afghanistan, and key
all-purpose political advisors within the administration. , (There's the
topic and conclusion). During the deliberations in 2009 and 2010
all senior advisors participated in the decision making process. Even Vice President Joe Biden, who disagreed
with the general direction of the policy, was always allowed to air his views
in the National Security Council. While
divisions did exist between the political aides and the Dept. of Defense, no
views were left out of the debate (the
specific argument and your evidence). This decision making process will be
illustrated by a brief examination of the situation as Obama entered office, an
analysis of the intra-administration debate between January of and December of
2009, and an examination of the final meetings where the decision was
made. The narrative of the decision will
be followed by an analysis of the decision process in the context of the
presidential management models. (Your
road map).
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 five main sections:
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.
·
Simple: for this assignment, do not
use quotes. You have one to two pages, so you don’t have
space. If you want to quote a word or a
phrase from some official statement, that might work.
·
The
rest of this is for longer papers. You
can ignore it, unless you want to use it for general reference for other
papers, larger papers, you’ll write for another class.
1.
Use
quotes sparingly. I 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
an eight page paper, that would be bad.
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 give me a sentence in your paper that quotes that information directly from
the source. For example, don’t include a
sentence that says: “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 terrorist scholar Reed Richards says in his book that
“Al-Qaeda probably only consists of 10,000 people worldwide.” Do not give me a sentence in your paper that
reads: Reed Richards says that “Al-Qaeda probably only consists of 10,000
people worldwide.” Give me something
that says: One scholar estimates that al-Qaeda only has 10,000 active members
globally (Add the endnote 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.
Or if Ben Grimm concludes in his book that: “Al-Qaeda’s growth depends
on economic reform in the Middle East.
Elimination of poverty is not the biggest problem. Rather it is the
ability of the middle class to gain social and economic mobility.” Don’t quote that, but say: Grimm’s
conclusions suggest that economic reforms designed to allow the middle class to
grow and prosper will be the key to battling al-Qaeda in the future (Add the
endnote here which cites Grimm’s book and the page number in it where the
information is found).
7.
In
a larger paper, but not in this one, sometimes quotes are useful. An appropriate use of a quote is this:
According to Osama bin-Laden, “for over seven years the United States has been
occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula,
plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people,
terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a
spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples” (Add the
endnote here which cites Bin-Laden’s fatwa and the page number in it where the
information is found or the internet URL).
This is an excerpt from the 1998 fatwa of OBL. Bin-Laden is a participant, a historical
figure. His exact words are important.
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 works 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. But not in this paper; it’s too small for
quotes.
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 works 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. But not in this paper; it’s too small 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 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 what is
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. First, the Clinton administration is accused 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 (Barton
1994, 1-34). Second, China experts argue 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 (Rogers 1997, 17-29). A third argument focuses on the
internal bargaining within the administration and the ability of President
Clinton’s economic advisors to best a human-rights first collation of advisors
from the State Department and NSC staff (Romanoff 2000, 307-332). Each of these
arguments has merit. A combination of the second and third arguments that
emphasizes 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? Stark? 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 reasonable
sized font (11 point). Shorter pages with wide margins and large print size
font 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 than 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”: This word 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 the rough draft in one day late and the final draft in 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.