17.S950 | Fall 2016 | Graduate

Social Science and the Iraq and Syrian Wars

Assignments

Analysis/Critique

You are required to submit three analyses or critiques of three articles from the readings. Each analysis should be a 2-3 page paper. You will also be required to give a 10-15 minute presentation in class of course analysis.

Final Paper

Each student will pick a topic, but your final paper must identify puzzling variation on an important dependent variable related to civil war, state-building, or counterinsurgency, and then develop a research plan to explain that variation. Each student will describe and justify this plan, and in some cases actually carry it out, in the final paper.