You are required to have six pages minimum of text, then a bibliography. You are required to quote material from at least six books or academic
journals that you found in the library. Academic journals are defined as those containing at least 10 foot/endnotes per major article. Feel free to
consult other sources; this is a minimum requirement.
Your assignment is to explain a historical or current event in IR using the course concepts, models, and theories. Choose an event you wish to
explain. Why did this event come about? Why did it unfold as it did? Answer these questions using IR concepts, models, and theories. Make a
theoretically informed argument about the most powerful influences on state (and other actors, as relevant) behavior during this event. This argument
must answer both of these questions: Why did this event come about? Why did it unfold as it did?
You will likely achieve clarity if you structure your paper to answer these questions. The theory/ies you choose will explain the causes of the event
and/or how the event unfolded. Unfolded means how the event developed over time once it began. Example: the Cuban Missile Crisis after it began.
Make sure all of your evidence serves the task of speaking to (for or against) your answer.
This is a diagnostic paper, not a prescriptive paper. The diagnostic tools are the theories we covered in class.
Examples of events include but are from limited to the outbreak of a major war, responses to ethnic conflict, development initiatives, and creation
and/or demise of major international institutions or treaties.