New project coming up

**davidbfpo** · 01-23-2010

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.

**Schmedlap** · 01-23-2010

I didn't even consider the course name in my first comment. Now I'm starting to wonder if the topic is even appropriate - definitely concur with Marc's suggestion.

This is something that I have had to grapple with recently. You're expected to choose a topic to write on at the start of the semester (presumably before you've learned about the subject matter). For me, I'm in the process of choosing topics for three separate papers on topics that I don't know enough about (in my opinion) to intelligently select a topic. I've done some research and picked out issues and questions to focus on, but even with that much information I have no idea if these are issues that can be discussed in 5 pages or if they require 25 or 200. If there were no page limit, then it wouldn't be an issue - but there is a page limit. However - and getting back to Marc's point - in speaking to my professors, they each gave me some good advice on narrowing the topics and asked me if I'd like another week to refine them. My impression is that I'm one of very few people looking to choose a topic that will be educational for me, rather than some BS topic that is easy to write about (so I also concur with David's comment). They each seemed pleased that I was taking the assignment seriously and they suddenly became very flexible.

I'd be curious what is on your course syllabus. Does anything related to COIN show up on your syllabus? Even if it does, that would seem odd to me, given that COIN is an operation, not a strategy. Or does Iraq or A'Stan or Pakistan show up? If so, is it just the last one or two class meetings where the professor just hits on recent developments? Those might be topics that are a bit too narrow and/or too recent to objectively analyze. I'd think looking at how George HW Bush handled foreign policy might be something where you can more effectively demonstrate what you've learned in the course (and will be more educational, too) because it was the overlap of the end of the Cold War, was punctuated by provocative US exercise of military power, and basically is a good time window to focus on in our shift away from leading "the free world" to being a leader in "the world community."

**jmm99** · 01-23-2010

I think David sums it very well:

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".

and I think that the issue of the minimum or maximum "footprint" is key.

So much for my thoughts. A piece of advice on writing a 10-page article from my law school faculty advisor (who qualified as a SME on your topic). Feel free to write a 100-page article. Then condense that down to 10-pages. The latter will be 10 times better than the former. The same lesson also included a lesson on my use of "Weltanschauung" in the draft. You know German; I know German; but you are writing in English - so don't show off and just say "worldview".

Regards

Mike

**Kevin23** · 01-23-2010

Originally Posted by Schmedlap

I didn't even consider the course name in my first comment. Now I'm starting to wonder if the topic is even appropriate - definitely concur with Marc's suggestion.

This is something that I have had to grapple with recently. You're expected to choose a topic to write on at the start of the semester (presumably before you've learned about the subject matter). For me, I'm in the process of choosing topics for three separate papers on topics that I don't know enough about (in my opinion) to intelligently select a topic. I've done some research and picked out issues and questions to focus on, but even with that much information I have no idea if these are issues that can be discussed in 5 pages or if they require 25 or 200. If there were no page limit, then it wouldn't be an issue - but there is a page limit. However - and getting back to Marc's point - in speaking to my professors, they each gave me some good advice on narrowing the topics and asked me if I'd like another week to refine them. My impression is that I'm one of very few people looking to choose a topic that will be educational for me, rather than some BS topic that is easy to write about (so I also concur with David's comment). They each seemed pleased that I was taking the assignment seriously and they suddenly became very flexible.

I'd be curious what is on your course syllabus. Does anything related to COIN show up on your syllabus? Even if it does, that would seem odd to me, given that COIN is an operation, not a strategy. Or does Iraq or A'Stan or Pakistan show up? If so, is it just the last one or two class meetings where the professor just hits on recent developments? Those might be topics that are a bit too narrow and/or too recent to objectively analyze. I'd think looking at how George HW Bush handled foreign policy might be something where you can more effectively demonstrate what you've learned in the course (and will be more educational, too) because it was the overlap of the end of the Cold War, was punctuated by provocative US exercise of military power, and basically is a good time window to focus on in our shift away from leading "the free world" to being a leader in "the world community."

In terms of when things will be discussed in my class. My prof is definitely planning on addressing post 9/11 issues, including Iraq and Afghanistan in early April at the latest so to answer your questions about recent developments in is planning to into detail on many things.

I also asked him at the end of last week about my paper idea and he said it sounded ok. He just warned me against letting balloon out of control in terms of content.

I also see your point about making the paper informative and demonstrative of what I've learned in the course, and if I feel/ or my professor feels I can't do that with my current topic. I will switch topics to something else although I don't know what yet in case I need a backup? On which I will think creating a topic dealing with something more on a strategic level, or regarding a post-Cold War Presidential Administration's approach to foreign policy would be good also?

**CMSbelt** · 01-24-2010

If you've already cleared the topic with your Prof, I'd suggest that you "Continue to March." If the requirement is a "research paper," these are usually something that digs into some detail on a specific topic not covered, or not covered in depth, within the readings or lectures. The title of the course topic (American Foreign Policy, in this case) is usually given a broad interpretation.

If you are concerned about a "policy level" viewpoint, you can frame the "evolution" of COIN in Iraq in terms of its subsequent influence on the Obama Af-Pak strategy and/or the follow-on review that led to the POTUS's (eventual) decision to send more troops in response to the request of GEN McChrystal.

**Steve the Planner** · 01-24-2010

Kevin:

Echoing CMSBelt's comments, I would be concerned that COIN, which is a broad and as yet very hard to define, limits and identify, may be a bit more than you need to bite off, will be evolving as you chew, and make take you too far afield from Foreign Policy.

The prior Foreign Policy, pre-2003, was one of containment via, among other things, no fly-zones, embargoes, UN engagement and Kurdish protection and humanitarian assistances. Any of those areas, and related sub-areas, are often little explored in current academia, but easily documented,and may be ripe for a bang-up paper.

As we contemplate embargoes on Iran, what did we learn form those applied to Iraq? Did they forestall military actions? Did they spawn huge corruption, even of the UN programs themselves? Did they accomplish Foreign Policy objectives. The answers are readily identifiable, and may give way to substantial insights of relevance to Iran, a current issue.

Gareth Stanfield published the big book on the Kurd last summer, and there are volumes of source info, as there are on the UN Oil for Food Program/embargo stuff.

The substantive Foreign Policy underlying Iraq's invasion was one of pre-emptive war, and. arguably, a pre-emptive war driven by poor and inaccurate intelligence. One Foreign Policy issue is the shift from containment to pre-emptive war.

The next significant Foreign Policy issue there was the US strategy for a Post-Conflict Iraq. Here you run into post-conflict planning, the chaos of inter-agency, the sub-blunders like De-Baath, and PRTs, COIN as tactics within.

I'd remember my policy thesis advisor's guidance to stay small and focused, and within manageable limits.

Steve