TERM PAPER ASSIGNMENT
ENVI 232/PS 220, Spring Semester 2003
The Assignment:
Each student is required to write a paper that analyzes the politics of an international or foreign environmental problem. The target length for the papers is 12-15 pages (double-spaced in 12 point font). Papers of less than 10 pages will not be considered adequate for fulfilling this assignment.
The paper is due at class time on Tuesday, May 13 . A topic should be selected and submitted to the instructor by Tuesday, March 11, and an outline of the paper by Tuesday, April 15. Students are encouraged to write drafts of their papers for feedback up to a week before the final due date. Dr. Soroos will be available for consultations regarding your term paper throughout the semester.
The Topic:
The topic must (a) involve a problem related to the use of international/global commons and (b) lend itself to political, policy analysis and/or legal analysis. A list of suitable topics is included for illustrative purposes. You may select one of these or devise another one that meets these conditions.
Narrowly defined topics normally work best. Avoid broad topics, such as "marine pollution" that cannot be handled very adequately in a term paper.
The paper should not simply be a rehash of one of the topics on the syllabus taken up in class and in the readings, such as the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, but it can be a more specific subject that is related to these topics.
Importance of Political, Policy, and Legal Analysis:
In writing the paper, be sure to emphasize the political, policy, and/or legal dimensions of your topic. Is the "tragedy of the commons" analogy relevant to your problem? What actors are involved and what are their interests in the issue? Are there international organizations that are working on the problem? Are there any international treaties that are applicable? What conflicting positions are nations or other international actors taking on the issue? Are there important disputes within countries that impact national policies? Of course, some of these questions may not be applicable to your topic and others may be difficult to answer without available information.
Please keep in mind that your assignment is NOT to simply advocate a position on a certain issue. You are encouraged to approach the topic with an open mind that acknowledges diverse viewpoints on your topic. Having considered competing perspectives, you may conclude your paper by making policy recommendations.
Criteria for Grading:
Papers will be graded on the basis of content (suitability of the topic, coverage of the subject--including recent developments, the quality of analysis, and objectivity) and composition (organization, clarity, grammar, spelling, typos, footnotes/endnotes). For further suggestions on composition and formats for citations, you are strongly encouraged to click on Suggestions for Writing a Good Term Paper.
Illustrative Topics:
-International efforts to conserve a specific species or fishery (such as whales, Atlantic tunas, or sea
turtles)
-Environmental problems of an enclosed body of water, (e.g., the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea, Great Lakes, or
Lake Chad)
-Environmental problems of a regional sea (e.g., the Mediterranean Sea, Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the
Caribbean Sea, or the Persian Gulf)
-International efforts to ban drift net fishing
-Environmental issues in the Arctic region
-One country's policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., in the United
Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, or Japan)
-Pollution problems of a major international river system (e.g, Danube, Rhine,
Rio Grande, Mekong)
-An international fisheries dispute (such as between between the United States and
Canada on salmon)
-Conflict over water resources (e.g., in the Jordan river valley, the Nile, or the Tigris-Euphrates
river systems)
-The special problems of small island states
-International issues pertaining to the recent sinking of the oil tanker the Prestige off Spain
Researching Your Topic
Increasingly, websites offer convenient access to information on many of the topics that you may have selected. For starters, check the list of Internet Resources that have been developed for this course, as well as the websites listed in the syllabus for specific topics. The following are some websites that may prove to be generally useful.
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe (an on-line service that can be used to locate newspaper, magazines, and journal articles on any subject, by conducting a keyword search; it is updated daily and contains texts of articles; click on "news"--then "general news")
IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development) Linkages (a website that can be used to access current and previous issues of Earth Negotiations Bulletin, an online newsletter which provides detailed day-to-day coverage of major international negotiating sessions on a variety of environmental problems; also link to the electronic Linkages Journal which has short articles on a wide range of international environmental topics, has brief summaries of past meetings, lists forthcoming meetings, and abstracts of recent literature in the environmental field)
Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators (ENTRI) (a highly useful database of environmental treaties and ratifications that can manipulated to provide a number of useful types of lists)
United Nations Environment Program (contains links to websites on a United Nations treaties and other initiatives that address a number of environmental problems, such as climate change, ozone depletion, pesticides, desertification, biodiversity, etc.)