Paper Guidelines

Deadlines

1)   Written Proposal – due in recitation Week 9 (October 18-22)

2)   Final paper – due Friday December 3, at 5 PM in Marco’s mailbox. Papers turned in after 5:00 will be marked one day late; late papers will be downgraded 10% for every day late. 

General Format

The paper should be between 2000 and 2500 words in length (usually 8-10 double-spaced pages), not including tables, graphs, maps etc and bibliography. Be sure to staple your hardcopy before submitting. Also, avoid any unusual fonts and margins (12pt Times New Roman font and 1-1.25 inch margins are standard). Please save any cover pages for the trees (similarly, double-sided printing is encouraged).

You must use the following system for referencing sources:

1. citing sources
2. web citations

Written Proposal:

You must turn in a written proposal to Marco in which you (a) briefly state the question to be answered, (b) state the theory that will be used to try to understand or analyze the problem, and (c) list some key references. The proposal cannot be more than one page in length.

Term Paper:

Topic:

This is an analytical paper, not a descriptive one. This is also an argumentative paper: you must have a thesis (an argument), and your thesis should be stated in the first paragraph. The topic should be a contemporary one (i.e. after 1945) and should be political-geographic in nature.  The ‘political-geographic’ rubric is broad and most topics can be accommodated in that framework.  If in doubt, consult one of the instructors. Examples of acceptable topics are: a) what caused the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991? b) the reasons for the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1991; c) the rise and fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan; d) why Chechnya has rebelled against Russia and not the other North Caucasian peoples; e) the role of Brazil in the world-economy; f) employing Critical Geopolitics to analyze a topic in geopolitics not discussed in lecture.

After you define the topic of interest, which of the following sets of political-geographic theories can help to understand the subject – a) geopolitical theories (classical and critical); b) world-system theories (Wallerstein and Modelski); c) globalization theories – economic, cultural, etc; d) state theory – including those that explain the stability of regimes; and e) nationalism theories (primordial, social constructivist, mixed, imagined communities, etc.).  Read the sections of the text that explain/review the relevant theory and follow up on some key references, preferably from the original author.

After you become familiar with the theory and its elements (assumptions, background, expectations, relations, predictions, etc), read about the topic from that perspective.  For example, looking at the Silk Road Act from a critical geopolitical perspective, you could examine its statements about democracy, US investment, relations with Islamic world, oil companies and exploitation of the region’s resources, etc.  What “story” is being sold? What discourse (words, phrases, images) is being promoted?  Is it plausible?  Who stands to gain and who is losing?  Who supports and who opposes the initiative, in the region and beyond?

If you are dealing with a nationalist conflict, you will have to read ahead in the textbook (Taylor and Flint), and read the Nationalism Chapter. The book Nationalism, edited by Hutchinson and Smith, is another good source; it is available on reserve at Norlin circulation desk. In addition, I have posted a few readings from Hutchinson and Smith’s book on E-Reserve.

Sources

In addition to any course assigned reading you may find relevant, you must use at least two “academic articles” not included on the course bibliography as sources for your paper. An academic article is one that has been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Norlin library has a large collection of academic journals, these are located in the Periodicals Room. The following are just a few of the relevant journals for a paper in political geography:

Political Geography Journal

Geopolitics

Foreign Affairs

World Development

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

Journal of Peace Research

Structure

About 2-3 pages should be devoted to elaboration of the theory, and why it is useful for the examination of this particular topic.  There is no need to present all the details of the theory, but focus on those elements that are more relevant to your topic.  Then, devote the remainder of the paper to showing how this theory is helpful in understanding the problem at hand.  You will have to present empirical details of the problem but emphasis should be on interpretation using the theory.

Term Paper Grading:

Theory 20%	Score	Empirical 20%	Score	Analysis 40%	Score	Writing 20%	Score
One of the political geographic theories specified		Amount of research carried out		Uses theory well		well written or poorly written
clear or unclear		accurate or inaccurate facts		Able to interpret specific events within theoretical context		grammar is correct
sophisticated or superficial		relevant or irrelevant				spelling is correct
Well researched		Richness of sources used		Able to pick events to illustrate point		Reference formatting is consistent
considers alternative arguments – is there a better theoretical alternative?		organized or disorganized		Thorough connections or missing links		Use of ancillary materials (maps etc)
Column Total	/5	Column Total	/5	Column Total	/10	Column Total	/5
GRAND TOTAL (out of maximum of 25)