HSEP
301
CRJS/POLI
367
Terrorism
Research
Paper
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)
You will be writing a 1-2
page executive summary on an assigned issue related to a terrorist group and
creating five PPT slides that you will use in your five minute class
presentation scheduled for the end of the semester. 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.
The paper and presentations
will be a group project, sort of. Each
group of five students (possible six) will choose a terrorist organization to
analyze. I will help assign the terrorist organizations to be studied during
the first three weeks of the class. There is an approved list of organizations
(see below). Each group will use a
division of labor in which each individual student is responsible for examining
one aspect/issue of the terrorist organization (see below). All the
aspects/issues taken together will provide a comprehensive picture of the
terrorist organization.
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 terrorist groups around the world. I can’t read a book on every terrorist group
out there. Also, I have eight zillion
other responsibilities. I can devote
about five minutes to each terrorist group, 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 terrorist group 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.
Here are examples of one to
two page executive summaries for the terrorist/insurgent group al-Shabaab. The summaries are annotated so you can see
what I was trying to achieve in each paragraph, even in some sentences. If you have trouble reading the comments, you
may need to play around with the settings of your toolbars to reveal the icons
for comments. You’ll also notice that
the bibliography is in a different file than the text. That is not required of you, but it was
simpler to do it that way. Please notice
endnote and bibliographic format. You
may use that style as a template for your paper if you like. You can use any established style (MLA, etc…)
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/
There
are many terrorist organizations. The following is the list you may choose from
for your re
search. On the back of the map quiz there will be a
list of these groups and you will be able to choose a first, second, and third
favorite. I will try to place everyone
in the first or second choice. Until the
map quiz (about the third week or course, feel free to learn more about these
groups or ask me questions, so you can pick one that will be the most
interesting to you).These are groups I feel have been studied in depth. You will find plenty of information on them.
You’ll hear this again and again, but never enough: use books and journals, not
just web sites!!!!
1. Boko Haram: a radical Muslim group based in
northern Nigeria that has engaged in increasingly violent attacks on the
government and on Christians
2. Earth Liberation Front
(ELF): Cell-based,
leaderless environmental activist movement based in the US, UK, and Canada.
Fights for animal rights and against the timber industry. Most noted for
economic sabotage, such as setting fire to luxury homes built on the edges of
national forests.
3. Harakat ul-Mujahadeen: Pakistan-based
radical Islamic group that fights to return Jammu and Kashmir, an Indian state,
to Pakistani control.
4.
Irish Republican Army (PIRA):
Created to push the British out of Northern Ireland. Though there may be peace in Northern
Ireland, there are armed splinters of this that remain actively using or
threatening acts of terrorist if the current settlements do not satisfy
them. Focus on the IRA as it evolved from the late 1960s on and then
splintered into several factions.
5. Japanese Red Army: Leftist terrorist group operating
in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, with links to other European leftist groups
and Palestinian terrorist organizations.
6. Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) also KADEK, KHK,
Kongra-Gel (KGK): Kurdish
ethno-nationalist terrorist group fighting to create an independent Kurdish
state out of the southeastern parts of Turkey.
7. Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND): An
insurgent/terrorist group based in Nigeria, which fights oil companies and the
Nigerian government. Its goal is to
return the Niger Delta region to control of the Ijaw people.
8. Narodnaya Volya: (People’s
Will): Revolutionary Russian terrorist organization of the late 1870s and early
1880s, responsible for the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881.
9. Stern Gang: An Israeli independence terrorist
organization that split from the Irgun in 1940.
Assassinated several prominent British officials.
10. Tupac Amaru Revolution Movement: Leftist group in Peru in the 1980s
and 1990s, noted for attacks on government and military targets and an attempt
to prevent civilian casualties. Also
noted for its 1996 seizure of the Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Lima, Peru
and a hostage crisis that dragged on for four months.
Since this is a group project
you will be working together to a certain extent. This means that you should expect to share
sources with each other. For example,
there may be one copy of the best book on the organization at the library. Don’t hog it.
Work out a schedule for each of you to take turns with the book. Tell each other of good websites and good
journal articles. Don’t be afraid to
share sources on this topic. Your
specific issues are different enough that you will be interested in different
aspects of the same sources. If anyone
has any problem with this, let me know.
For each terrorist
organization examined, the assigned issues are listed below. Each of you will
be assigned one issue to research for the terrorist group you’ve been
assigned. I will give brief examples of
what I mean using al-Qaeda, an organization we will discuss at length in class,
but that will not be one of the terrorist groups that the research papers will
focus upon. Each member of the group
assigned to research a specific terrorist organization will focus on one of
these issues (1-5) unless I indicate that number 6 is also a choice. You will be making the choice of issue
yourself and then submitting to me, as a group, the issue assignments. For example, let’s say that there are five
people who have been assigned to study the terrorist organization “Bombings ‘R
Us.” Early on the semester you’ll give me a list that shows me which topics
each member of the group will be researching.
Research and present only on the topic you are assigned. The list would look like this:
Bombings ‘R Us
Issue One: Bill Russell
Issue Two: Larry Bird
Issue Three: LeBron James
Issue Four: Michael Jordan
Issue Five: Oscar Robertson
The issues in brief:
1.
Origins,
objectives, and doctrines of the organization
2.
Leadership
and leadership structure
3.
Support
for the organization, in terms of both governmental and non-governmental,
finances, and recruiting methods
4.
Strategy,
targets, and method of operations
5.
The
nature of counterterrorist efforts against the organization
6.
Non-violent
political activities of the organization (ignore this unless I specifically
assign it)
7.
Negotiations
(ignore this unless I specifically assign it)
The issues in detail
Issue One
Origins,
objectives, and doctrines of the organization: Describe the creation of the
organization, its reason for being and its political goals. What doctrines does it use to guide its
belief systems and activities?
(Are these goals realistic given the politics
of the situation? Are these goals negotiable as part of a settlement that will
end political violence and lead to a partial achievement of these goals?)
For
al-Qaeda (AQ), the origins date back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when
militants from all over the Middle East and Asia came to Afghanistan to fight
the “infidel” invaders. The organization
flourished again after the Gulf War in opposition to US troops stationed in
Saudi Arabia. The goals are diverse:
removal of US troops from the Middle East, destruction of Israel, removal of
authoritarian rulers in the Middle East and democratic rulers in Southeast
Asia, replacement of those rulers with AQ approved leaders. The doctrines are a mixture of radical
Islamic ideas (indeed in many ways very un-Islamic) and Arab nationalism.
(The
goals don’t sound very realistic, or very negotiable. AQ may achieve them, however, by sowing
general chaos in these regions, a chaos that could lead to the rise of
demagogues that might move in the most radical direction. Remember, how economic and political turmoil
in Germany, Italy, and Japan between WW I and WW II led to the victory of
fascists in all three countries.)
Issue Two
Leadership
and leadership structure: Who leads this organization and by what means? Is
this leadership stable or in flux? Are
there rivalries within the leadership? Is it hierarchical or network-based?
(Is
this leadership structured well or is it chaotic to the point where it inhibits
the organizations ability to act? Are the organizations too dependent on single
individuals or has the institutional structure been developed enough to survive
the capture or death of the senior leaders?)
For AQ the picture is mixed. It has a strong leadership (Osama bin-Laden)
and it has survived the capture of its number three man -- Khalid Sheikh
Muhammed. However, it is also network-based with a series of loosely connected
cells, alliances with other groups, and even entrepreneurial groups that it
funds, but may not direct.
(The
leadership seems to be in a state of flux since it was pushed out of
Afghanistan, but it seems to have enough organizational staying power to
continue to operate although in a weakened state, it is believed. New people are promoted up the command
structure and the entrepreneurial nature of AQ operations makes central command
less important in any case.)
Issue Three
Support
for the organization, in terms of both governmental and non-governmental,
finances, and recruiting methods: Does the organization have ties to
nation-states or is it independent of them and geographically dispersed? What are the sources of its funding and its
recruit base?
(What
could change, weaken, or strengthen that support? Have there been changes in support for the
organization? If so, what are those
changes and why did they occur?)
For AQ the support structure dates back to the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan and the training facilities set up there, then
reenergized after the victory of the Taliban in the Afghan civil war. The support also comes from the religious
schools throughout the Middle East and Asia that preach a militant version of
Islam. Most of them are funded by Saudi
Arabia. Other support comes from
charitable organizations tolerated by many nations in those regions and overt
support was given by the government of Afghanistan from 1996-2001. Funding also came from organized crime
activities, particularly the drug trade.
(Obviously,
the aftermath of September 11 has changed that support. Many more passive supporters -- providing
funding but not involved in terrorist actions -- turned against the
organization. The overthrow of the
Taliban in Afghanistan and the anti-terrorist measures from Pakistan have hurt
AQ. However, reportedly, the US intervention
in Iraq has helped recruitment.
Issue Four
Strategy,
targets, and method of operations: How does the organization intend to achieve
its goals, both in terms of long-term strategy and immediate activities? Does it use mass targeting of civilians for
maximum publicity or selective targeting of political figures or economic and
infrastructure attacks? Does it use
kidnapping or attacks on military targets?
Does it operate internationally or only locally? What are its expectations for those
operations? How does it achieve victory?
(Is
this strategy likely to be successful?
How has the strategy played out?
Is the organization closer to its goals?)
For AQ the strategy has been the use of violence in ever
larger attacks on civilians. The main target has been the US and occasionally
its allies. The method has been car bombs and attacks on planes or use of
planes as means of attack.
(The
strategy has been unsuccessful so far.
Instead of causing the US to withdraw from the Middle East, the US is
more deeply involved than ever. AQ seems
farther away from its goals. Some argue,
however, that in the long run AQ has manipulated the US into overreacting and
overreaching, that the current US intervention in Iraq will backfire on the
US. It will lose support and sympathy
around the world. AQ will gain more
recruits. Ultimately, the difficulties
in Iraq will lead the US to withdraw from the Middle East.)
Issue Five
The
nature of counterterrorist efforts against the organization: What measures have
been taken by local, regional, and global authorities to combat the organization
and what have been the results of these actions?
(Have
counterterrorist efforts against the organization achieved success or failure?)
For AQ there have been numerous responses to September
11: US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; Pakistan turned against the Taliban
and turned against militants at home; Saudi Arabia has begun to crack down on
militants; US creation of a homeland security agenda and institutions to carry
out that agenda; and international coalition against terrorism that supports
multinational efforts to crack down on terrorist groups worldwide.
(Whether these efforts have succeeded or not is still
uncertain. No attacks have been made on
the US since September 11; however, numerous attacks have been attempted around
the world. The vast majority have been
thwarted, yet some high profile ones have been carried out throughout the
world. The Iraq war has opened up a new
theater of attack, but it is uncertain how much of the attacks on US and coalition
forces in Iraq are the work of AQ-allied organizations.)
Issue Six
(Some groups may have six students in them.
I will assign Issue Six if needed.)
Non-violent political activities of the organization:
Is the organization involved in any kind of political activity that is
non-violent in nature? Does it have its
own political wing/party that is involved in electoral politics or negotiations
with a government? Does it have a civil
society component that provides social welfare or education or community
outreach for the poor -- trash collection, soccer leagues, pre-school? Has it set up a shadow government structure
in areas that it controls, if it controls areas? Is it engaged in criminal activities, such as
drug trafficking, that may have started out as a way to fund terrorist
activities, but have evolved into a profit-making mission?
(What is the effect of these
activities? Do they build a recruit
base, provide funds, or legitimize their violent activities? Has it resulted in
a negotiated settlement and possibly an end to violence? Have they turned the organization away from
its original mission or have they become a crucial part of that mission?)
For AQ, this is less of an
issue. AQ is such a virtual organization
at this point that deep ties to civil society are too geographically-binding. AQ does have ties to religious schools
throughout the world, charity organizations, and mosques, but these serve as
conduits for recruits and financing to AQ.
When in Sudan and Afghanistan, however, AQ did provide schooling,
scholarship money, charity for local organizations, and even ran legitimate
business operations. In Afghanistan, AQ
provided huge amounts of funding to the Taliban-controlled government to help
maintain government social welfare projects, religious education, and the
religious police. AQ does not have a
wing that negotiates or engages in legitimate political activity. It is fighting total war and has shown no
real willingness to consider its terrorist activities as a prelude to a
negotiated settlement, as is the case with many other organizations.
(Again, AQ is unusual in that it has
no geographic base, so its political activities can’t be linked closely to
activities that might implicate people in AQ operations. This is especially so in the current
environment in which the world is trying to hunt down AQ. AQ is fighting total war. Its religious nature may preclude – at least
for now – any negotiations or compromises with the “infidels.” But if AQ had become involved in these types
of activities (social welfare, political action, or negotiations with a
government), the result of those activities would be the big question. Has it resulted in a political settlement, a
semi-legitimizing of the organization, or a full-fledged embrace of the
organization as a political voice in the region?)
Issue Seven (Some groups may have six students in them. This will be one of the possible additional
issues that I will assign. Ignore this issue unless I specifically assign it.)
Negotiations. Has the terrorist organization been willing
to negotiate to end the conflict? Has it been willing to end its strategy of
violence if the targeted government agrees to negotiations that, in theory,
might lead to some political concessions? Why did the terrorist group agree to
negotiate and why did the targeted government agree to negotiate? What were the results of the negotiations?
Did they work out or did the negotiations collapse and lead to a new round of
fighting? Was the terrorist organization sincere in its negotiated efforts or
was this just a strategy to get the government to relax, allowing the terrorist
organization some breathing space to rebuild its capabilities and launch a new
round of violence?
There is no example to use from the
history of al-Qaeda. It is not willing to negotiate. Ethno-nationalist groups, however, have shown
a willingness to negotiate. For example,
the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Kurdistan
Worker’s Party (PKK), and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) have negotiated with
their governmental opponents. The PLO’s
negotiations with Israel produced the Oslo Accords in 1993 that allowed for
limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and what was
believed to be an end to the cycle of violence.
Further negotiations that might lead to a Palestinian state and a
lasting peace have failed due to the rise of Hamas (a violent and
religious-based) rival to the Fatah movement (the successor political movement
to the PLO) and a subsequent hardening of Israeli policy. Instead of peace,
renewed violence has dominated the issue since the turn of the century.
We will begin forming the
groups and assigning topics early in the semester.
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.
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!
1.
How to start looking for sources. The internet is very good, but
remember books and journals and the requirements in using them. For example, if
there is a 400 page book on the terrorist organization sitting in the library,
it would be a quicker way to a lot of information than a google search.
3.
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.
4.
Many
think tanks have great resources on them. On your syllabus is a link to sources
on Terrorism and Homeland Security. There are lots of links there to
excellent sources. In particular: the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
(http://www.ctc.usma.edu/), or Rand
Corporation (www.rand.org).
5. Journals specifically to terrorist-related
issues:
a. Studies in
Conflict and Terrorism (available on line through VCU Libraries);
b. Terrorism and
Political Violence (available on line through VCU Libraries);
6. Journals on
International Security issues that may also have excellent articles on
Terrorism and counterterrorism issues
a. Foreign Affairs (policy-oriented)
b. Foreign Policy (policy-oriented)
c. The National Interest (policy-oriented)
d. The Washington Quarterly (policy-oriented)
e. Survival (policy-oriented)
f. Journal of Intelligence and
Counterintelligence (policy-oriented)
g. The American Interest (policy-oriented)
h. Parameters (journal of the US Army
Strategic Studies Institute)
i.
Military
Review (US Army Combined Arms Center)
j.
Joint
Force Quarterly (journal of the Chairman of the JCS)
k. Strategic Studies Quarterly (journal of
the US Air Force Air University)
l.
The
Naval War College Review (journal of the US Naval War College)
m. Orbis (half policy; half academic)
n. Journal of Strategic Studies (half
academic; half policy)
o. Foreign Policy Analysis (half academic;
half policy)
p. International Security (academic)
q. Security Studies (academic)
r.
International
Affairs (London-based academic)
s. World Politics (academic)
t.
Journal
of Conflict Resolution (academic)
u. Armed Forces and Society (academic on
civil-military relations)
v. List of links
of US and other national military journals; some think tank journals too
7. Regionally-focused
Journals: there are a few dozen journals out there that focus specifically on
regional political issues and they will have articles on the terrorist
organizations from that region. To find
those, you can simply search VCU libraries or Google Scholar using the name of
the region as a keyword (such as Middle East or Asia) and then use a keyword like: Journal or Affairs or
Studies.
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”).
If
the format for the assignment is an executive summary, only endnotes are
allowed (see the requirements above). If
your assignment is for an 8-10 page research paper, then 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:
o
Easy
Bib
o
Bibme
o
Purdue OWL (Online Writing Workshop)
o
Chicago Manual of Style Quick
Guide
o
Endnotes (and footnote style). 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.
o
Parenthetical
References This
is a link to an article I wrote which can be used as a template for citing
using parenthetical references. Note in the citations that the author’s name
and publication date is within the parentheses (and page numbers if available).
You may have to sign in to get the article.
o
Also,
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.
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.
Bibliography: The
bibliography is all the sources you’ve used (List anything you found useful
even if only confirmed information you found 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 bet info
from a website. See the above resources for the rules on that.
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.
Footnotes, endnotes and
parenthetical references are the three ways to cite information. On formats, see the above links. 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. 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 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.
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 endnotes. You may use footnotes, but then
the paper must be a bit longer since some of the page will be taken up by
footnotes. 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…) (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 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.)
This
paper will analyze the origins, objectives, and doctrines of al-Qaeda
(AQ). AQ is currently the world’s
largest and most active terrorist organization – global in activity,
recruitment, and mission. It is a curious
mixture of 21st century technology and medieval ideology. (That’s
the topic.) Its origins date back to the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 when militants from all over the Middle
East and Asia came to Afghanistan to fight the “infidel” invaders. Its goals are diverse, but call for the
alteration of the political landscape of the Middle East and an end to US
influence in that region. The doctrines are a mixture of radical Islamic ideas
(indeed in many ways very un-Islamic) and Arab nationalism. (That’s how you will explain your issue—by
discussing three sub-topics: 1)
initial origins; 2) its goals; and 3) doctrines.) Overall,
the goals don’t sound very realistic, or very negotiable. While AQ can launch terrorist activities
around the world, its ability to actually control territory or capture a nation
state is limited. However, it may have
the ability to harass, damage, and attack the targets for decades to come. (Those
are your conclusions.)
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:
Or another example:
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 Adviser James Jones, the senior commanders in Afghanistan, and key
all-purpose political advisers within the administration. , (There's the
topic and conclusion). During the deliberations in 2009 and 2010
all senior advisers 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.
·
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.
·
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.
·
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.
·
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.
·
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.
·
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).
·
In
a larger paper, but not in this one, sometimes quotes are useful. A good 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.
·
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.
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.
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 Moscow coup in August 1991. Stan says the
military instigated the overthrow (Stan 1994, 1-34). Kyle disagreed, saying the
military prevented the coup from being successful (Kyle 1997, 17-29). Cartman says the coup failed because its leaders were inept
(Cartman 2000, 307-332). However, all three authors
understate the impact of public opinion; the coup really failed because of the
Russian people's yearning for Democracy.
The article would then outline the theories of Stan, Kyle, and Cartman, criticize each one, and then develop the fourth theory. There is no problem as long as Stan, Kyle, and Cartman get credited with developing their theories, and the fourth theory is yours. If the fourth theory belongs to a fourth author (Kenny? Timmy? Professor Chaos?), the reader must be told that the fourth theory is Kenny's 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. For example, one source may say that Hizbullah has ties to Syria and another may say it doesn’t. You need to decide who’s right. State that there are differences of opinions. Cite the sources. Who says there are ties? Who says there aren’t? Then you can, if you want, suggest what you think based on your research. Or you can simply say that a dispute exists and leave it at that.
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 Adviser 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 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 advisers.” It would be
“President Bush met with three advisers.”
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.