Kevin23,

I have a new project coming up as for my second semester of my first undergraduate year of college, I'm taking an upper division level class called American Foreign Policy After WWII. Eventually this course I'm taking ends with a rather large final paper which has to be turned in at the end of the semester, and has to be about contemporary foreign policy issue.

Since I have to start working on it soon, I was going to do my research paper on The Evolution of COIN in Iraq between 2005-Present.
I'd steer away from Iraq. There is far more to US foreign policy than Af-Pak and Iraq. Global soldier (in the Cold War), Global policeman (in GWOT), Global banker and emergency helper (today) - nice slogans. What underpins them? National interest and a capability to intervene. What are the weaknesses of either or both? Then select contrasting examples, of the minimum and maximum "footprint". Yes, Iraq can then feature and as it is contemporary, the Yemen.

Professors get used to reading and marking papers based on easy options, "thinking out of the box" should get better marks.