US Foreign Policy

This is about the work of Congress in foreign affairs.

Access one of the congressional committees–either House or Senate–that deals with an aspect of foreign policy, such as Foreign Relations or Armed Services at https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/committees/d_three_sections_with_teasers/committees_home.htm

Read the committee’s mission statement, latest press releases, sponsored legislation, and membership list. Answer the following questions in about 2 pages using APA style:
•How diverse is the committee’s membership?
•What kind of experience do the legislators bring to their committee?
•What pieces of legislation are sponsored by this committee?
•Do the committee and legislation appear more ideological and partisan or more moderate and bipartisan?
•Is this a committee that legislators would desire to be appointed to?
•Does this committee primarily provide oversight, procedural, or substantive legislation? Give examples.
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TA wrote saying:

Most of you need to work on narrowing your research question and developing a testable thesis. Don’t try to tackle huge questions about why the Vietnam War went on for so long, or whether 9/11 was used to justify invading Iraq. There are a dozen good answers to each of these questions and there are thousands of books and articles already devoted to the subject. Narrowing the topic will mean an easier time with the research and a better end product.

Pick a topic you’re interested in and want to learn about. Don’t write a paper you think you already know the answer to. You don’t need to prove a thesis. You need to test it and argue for it. That’s the point of doing research. Not being entirely right doesn’t mean the paper is a failure (though don’t try to test an un-testable or altogether obvious thesis – e.g. Ronald Reagan was a bit of a moron, George W. Bush was a bit of a moron, therefore US foreign policy was bad during their administrations).

I’m happy to go over this with you in office hours or by email. But I encourage you all to use the following template and send it or bring it to me before you start writing.

A research paper should start with an observation of an interesting or puzzling phenomenon. For example, isn’t it interesting that after Obama set a red line on the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime then didn’t follow through on his threat Russia invaded Crimea and entered the Syrian civil war on Assad’s side? Seems like there might be a credibility issue. I bet JFK would have done things differently. Then again it was the Cold War and we knew who the bad guys were. And Vietnam and Iraq II hadn’t happened yet. (Don’t write like this, use academic writing).
A good research question should ask something about variation and cause/effect relationships based on that research question. Does the material credibility of a threat affect the persuasiveness of US foreign policy? OR Does domestic war weariness affect the credibility of a threat?
The thesis statement then tries to answer the question about the puzzling observation. I argue that US foreign policy can only dispel belligerent actors if matched by a verifiable military presence. OR Domestic distaste for war undermines the credibility of a US threat.
NOTE: the way I frame the thesis has different implications for the theory I use. One is more IR / Security Studies and the other is more Comparative / Domestic Politics.

Then you move on to case studies. I investigate my thesis about threat credibility by comparing the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kosovo, and Syria, specifically looking at the way that X did Y.
You need a theoretical frame for your argument. There is a tremendous amount of research to draw on, particularly about US foreign policy. In fact the most Political Science is written about American politics. For example, I situate my paper in the research on domestic political opinion and US foreign policy (see below).
Work with this template, write a strong one-page outline and I’ll give you feedback on it. The outline will help a lot when you sit down to write your paper this weekend.

Other general instructions

You’re not writing a five paragraph essay; double space; number your pages; no fancy cover pages; put your name on your paper; include a word count on the first page; don’t play with the font or margins to make it seem longer; use proper citation; don’t cite Wikipedia, RT, or Vice; never start a paper with the sentence “In an increasingly globalized world”.