Assignment requirements:
• Identify the ethical dilemma, relationship, case, or issue/subject you are studying, and explain why it is significant, both to you and the U.S. national security community writ large.
• Provide relevant background on your research topic. If any, what have been the prior decisions or ethical baggage that has affected the current reality of the relationship, dilemma, case etc.? What key constituencies, interests, or stakeholders are involved in your study and how do they weigh in on your subject?
• How are ethical considerations present in your chosen topic, and which ethical principles are most at play in your chosen subject? You may shape the analysis of your topic through one or more relevant ethical viewpoints, including, eventually, your own.
• Through your analysis, what problems or dilemmas in national security are you uncovering in your research, and how might the situation or condition be remedied? What possible solutions can you recommend to the national security community, or the broader public?
• Finally, in your conclusion, how can what you have analyzed lead to improved practices, operations etc. in the relevant national security domain you investigated? Assume you are briefing someone senior, and lay out your assessments, conclusions and recommendations to the relevant national security community.
• Your final research paper submission will be evaluated in terms of how thoroughly you: answer the questions above; use resources to document your main points; and properly cite referenced work. Your essay should address all of the questions above and should consist of approximately 2,500 words of text (approximately 10 pages of double-spaced and 12 point font of text). Be sure to include specific examples and references from your research and any additional references you would like to include. Use in-text citations and a reference list that will make up an additional page. Below are helpful journals and research sites as well as more guidance on research paper formatting.
Draft instructor feedback:
Good overall topic. I like the focus on remaining a member of NATO. Be sure to build a thesis based on what you want the paper to prove (basically, yes or no, with whatever nuance you wish to include) and make sure it is clear and precise. Everything should build on that thesis statement. Make it clear and put it up front and prominent. Probably most important of all, make sure your paper focuses on analysis, not just a history of NATO or descriiption of issues. That should be the heart of the paper. Be very careful of your facts, too! getting facts wrong seriously undermines your paper’s credibility.
Specific help requested:
A clear thesis
Analysis, rather than NATO history
