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."