The word limit is 1,200 words. Take note of this.
The main reason for making this so short is that I believe that this simulates conditions you are likely to face in the real world. At some point you are likely to find yourself in the position of trying to convince your boss, or other people, to do something and you will have only a small window of opportunity, i.e., a few words, to make your case.
This is really a very short essay. Before you get excited about not having to write much realize that it is not easy to write a high-quality short essay. You have to be really well organized. You can’t waste space warming up to your subject.
As with any essay the key is to have something to say. So your first step is to try to come up with an interesting argument that you want to make. Obviously, this is much easier said than done.
Here are a few model essays you can look at:
1. “Getting it Wrong about Wartime Sexual Violence” by Andrew Mack
2. “Trends in Armed Conflict: Some Bad (But Mostly Good) News” by David E. Cunningham.
3. “Iraq Sanctions Myth” by …err….me.
Here are the take away points.
1. They are about the right length.
2. They make a point. They could be wrong but they take a stand on something.
3. They try to anticipate counter arguments and address them.
I find that many students struggle with the balance between 2 and 3. Some essays come out wishy washy, i.e., “one the one hand this….on the other hand that”. Others take a clear position but ignore obvious objections to their positions.
Try out your argument on friends, relatives, acquaintances, enemies – anyone who will listen. Rehearse your arguments in your head. Practice making your points clearly and concisely.
But I’m running ahead of myself…..the first step is that you have to identify a good topic and do some research.
EC3320 2014/15 Michael Spagat
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Research should be in the spirit of our friendly course. This means your research should be about armed conflict and it should have some kind of a quantitative orientation. This doesn’t mean that you have to do something fancy with statistics. Again, you can take the above articles as models.
What about topics?
Feel free to propose your own topic to me. However, please don’t pick your own topic without consulting me first.
Otherwise, below I give some suggested topics. I think that most of you are best off choosing one of the suggested topics unless you really have something specific you want to work on.
1. (The war in Syria) Have a look at the report “Stolen Futures”, put out by Oxford Research Group in 2013. Go to page 15 to see a list of organizations collecting data on the conflict. Google around to get a sense of what is out there. Pick an organization that has a database you like. Do a Dirty War analysis based on this database. I’ve left this question deliberately open-ended so that you come up with your own ideas on how you want to go about this. Of course, try to get guidance from some of the papers you’ve read and the lectures I’ve given.
2. (Rwandan Genocide) View this controversial BBC documentary. Investigate the controversy surrounding the claims of scholars Christian Davenport and Alan Stam. Research this controversy and write up your findings. Take a position and defend it.
3. (Dodgy Iraq Survey) I have posted the dataset that was released for the Roberts et al. survey on mortality in Iraq right next to the present document. There are various things you might want to do with this survey but I would suggest focusing on the sheet that gives information (incomplete) about where the different clusters are. Try placing these locations on a map of Iraq and then write up what you find. One very good way to do this is using Google Earth. It is pretty easy to figure out how to use it. Once you build up a picture of where the clusters are think about how random the sample was.
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