Professor S.E. Croco GVPT409D Fall 2009 1 Seminar in International Relations and World Politics: International Security and Research Design GVPT 409D Fall 2009 Contact Information Professor S. E. Croco ([email protected]) Tuesday, Thursday 9:30-10:15 Office hours: Tuesday, 11am-1pm Office: 2101c Morrill Hall Course Information The goal of this course is to give you an introduction to existing theories of war and peace, and the means by which political scientists evaluate these theories. Although the primary focus of this class is on substantive topics, there will also be a second yet equally important focus on issues of research design (e.g., hypothesis specification and testing, dataset construction, etc.) By the end of this class you should be able to speak intelligently about how current IR research is carried out. Although this may seem like a daunting proposition, my goal in this class is to demonstrate to you that you do not need a Ph.D. in political science to deconstruct and refine existing political science research. All you need is curiosity and a little background information. Since there is no textbook that deals with this specific topic, the readings will be drawn almost entirely from scholarly journals and books. Although these works will contain statistical analyses and formal models involving calculus, you will never be asked to understand the math behind these methods. What you will be required to do is read to understand the author’s argument. I will provide an introduction about how to read scholarly articles on the second day of class. I will also post questions for you to keep in mind as you read on the class website. Please know that this class will involve a large amount of reading. I strongly encourage you to stay current with the week’s readings. Course Readings The readings have been posted as PDF’s on the ELMS/Blackboard website. Graded Components: First Exam: 27% Second Exam: 27% Third Exam: 27% Participation (in class): 4% Online Discussion Boards: 10% Attendance: 5% Individuals found guilty of academic dishonesty will be punished to the fullest extent of the policies and guidelines established by the University. For more on the student honor code, please see http://www.shc.umd.edu.Professor S.E. Croco GVPT409D Fall 2009 2 Attendance is mandatory. In accordance with the University’s policy on the observance of religious holidays, it is the student’s responsibility to inform me of any absences due to these holidays well in advance and in writing within the first two weeks of the semester. Students are also strongly encouraged to meet with me during office hours to discuss the course readings. Students are required to post to the online discussion boards throughout the semester. There is a minimum of 15 original posts and 20 responses to other posts (you cannot reply to your own posts unless you are responding to something someone else wrote about your post). Each original post should be approximately 250 words long. Original posts should also start their own threads unless you are replying to a prompt posted by me (see below). Replies should be a minimum of 150 words. For an original post to count, it needs to be submitted by the time class starts on the day we go over the readings discussed in the post. So, for example, if you are writing a post about Susan Hyde’s “The Observer Effect”, your post must be online by 9:30 am on September 22. There is no time limit on replies (though you cannot do all 20 in the last 2 weeks of class). You can make more than one post per day, provided each post talks about a different reading and that each post says something different (i.e., you can’t make the same point twice about two different readings). To reward hard work and discourage “phoning it in,” I’ll grade your posts on a four-point scale (4= exceeds expectations, 1= poor). Late entries and entries that are half-hearted, confusing, or mechanically messy will receive no credit. Here’s what the point system means: 1. Poor: an entry almost devoid of original thought, perhaps full of mechanical errors and/or opaque language 2. You can do better: the entry has some merit, but little original thought and/or much unclear or unpolished writing 3. Meets requirements: your entry reads well and contributes usefully to the class discussion. 4. Exceeds Expectations: either in the quality of analysis and/or quality of writing Posts can be on any of the following topics (though don’t feel limited to these): • A connection you saw between a current event and the phenomenon discussed in a reading. • Take a research technique the author described in the reading and think of a different research question you could apply it to. • Something you really didn’t like about how the author tried to answer a research question. How could they have improved their research design? • Did anything in the reading challenge your understanding of how things work? • You can also make posts about discussions we had in class. These posts must be made by the end of the week in which the original discussion took place (i.e., by 5pm of that Friday). • I will also occasionally post ideas for you to react to. These reactions will count as original posts.Professor S.E. Croco GVPT409D Fall 2009 3 You can also post questions you have about the readings in the “questions” thread for each day (these will not count as original posts, though). I will try to check these threads, but the primary purpose of them is to encourage a discussion between students. None of the exams are cumulative. There is no extra credit, save a few bonus questions at the end of exams. Do not ask if you can do an extra project if you are unsatisfied a grade you received on an exam. The answer is an unequivocal no. This policy applies to all students, even those that are graduating this term. “CHOICES” is a class activity, not a reading. Important Dates Thursday, October 6: First exam. Thursday, November 5: Second exam. Thursday, December 10: Third exam. Assignments and Readings Readings are due the day they are listed for (e.g., have “Draining the Sea” and “Reading and Understanding” read when you walk into class Sept. 8). Week 1 Tuesday, Sept 1: Introduction to the Class • Questions from news articles due. Thursday, Sept 3: NO CLASS Week 2 Tuesday, Sept. 8 Stats 1: The Basics • Ben Valentino, Paul