Advice for choosing a topic in Global Politics

1. The topic selected needs to be contemporary, this means it is something that happens during your lifetime (so during the past 18 years). 

2. This also can’t be the same political issue that you’ve used for another assessment component (i.e. the Engagement Activity or an oral presentation).

3. In Global Politics there are no suggested areas as in other subjects. All areas of the syllabus can be appropriate as long as they are properly presented and addressed. 

4. Examples of EE:

a)  “A comparison of how the protests of late 2014 were portrayed in the official media in Singapore versus the reporting undertaken by NGOs X, Y and Z active in Singapore” (Example from the GP Guide)

b) “An evaluation of the ability of  migrants to achieve a political voice in county X in ” (Example from the GP Guide). 

Advice for research in Global Politics

1. Reviewing other similar examples and exploring their differences with your example (case study) is a valuable way of better understanding your topic and acquiring new insights. 

2. There are always at least two different perspectives for each story, therefore, any topic selected should be addressed and analyzed from two (or more) perspectives. 

3. Topics should have some link with Foundational theories or otherwise to Critical Theories. They should ideally relate or refer, to some extent, to concepts such as Liberalism, Realism, or otherwise to Marxism, Feminism, Environmentalism, Post Colonialism, Constructivism, or other.  

Advice for write-up in Global Politics

1. Questions should be concrete and defined, rather than open and broad. 

2. When possible, questions should refer to a specific time-period.

3. When writing in Global Politics, analysis should at least consider the local, community, national, regional, international and Global levels. 

4, The 12 key concept of the course should be present when writing your EE: 1) Power, 2) Sovereignty, 3) Legitimacy, 4) Interconnectedness, 5) Human Rights, 6) Justice, 7) Equality, 8) Liberty, 9) Development, 10) Globalisation, 11) Inequality, 12) Sustainability, 13) Peace, 14) Conflict, 15) Violence, 16) Non-violence.  

Examples of past papers (at Markham):

a)  To what extent is it legitimate to have a separation between human rights (women’s rights) and marketability of players in professional tennis when determining the players’ rewards? (2018, c)

b) To what extent has the breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) undermined Hong Kong’s sovereignty? (2019, b)

c) To what extent is it possible to have a humanitarian pardon free of politicization? The case of Peruvian former president Alberto Fujimori released on 2017 by president PPK. (2019, b)