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Exploring US Foreign Policy under Obama: A Comprehensive Research Proposal

This research project aims to critically analyze US foreign policy during the Obama administration, comparing it to the preceding Bush administration, particularly post-9/11. The study will address key questions about the effectiveness of Obama’s Middle East strategies and the broader implications of his diplomatic approaches. Through qualitative methods such as interviews, historical analysis, and discourse analysis, this research seeks to provide new insights into the political economy of foreign relations. A detailed six-step research design will be outlined, encompassing the research question, literature review, hypotheses, methodology, ethical considerations, and bibliography.

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Exploring US Foreign Policy under Obama: A Comprehensive Research Proposal

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  1. WEEK11: EXPERIMENTS IN PIR

  2. This Term: (mainly) Qualitative Methods • Experiments • Comparisons • Historical analysis • Interviews and Focus Groups • Ethnographic observation • Discourse and Content analysis

  3. Second Assignment • 2000-2500 word essay on research design • Deadline: 20th March 2012/ 12pm (noon) Imagine that you are applying for a research funding to British Political Council. You need to provide a detailed and feasible research project in order to get the funding.

  4. Suggested Topics • 'The Political Economy of the Global Financial Crisis' • 'US Foreign Policy under Barack Obama' • 'Constitutional Reform in Britain' • Democratisation in the Middle East • Social and Political Unrest among young people in UK • Far-right extremism

  5. Your research project in 6 simple steps • Research question • Literature Review ----revisions----------------------------------- III. Hypotheses IV. Methodology ---- revisions----------------------------------- V. Ethical issues VI. Bibliography

  6. First Homework: 30th January Hand in the first part of your project (~1000 words): I. Your research question: choose a topic, a relevant research question, and explain convincingly why you find it important to study it. II. Literature Review: Read at least 5 academic works (academic articles or book chapters) on that topic. Summarize their research questions and findings. Explain how your research would relate to these: Would your research confirm, clarify, refine or falsify their answers?

  7. 'US Foreign Policy under Barack Obama' Examples of relevant research questions: How does Obama’s foreign policy differ from Bush administration’s foreign policy after September 11? • How successful is Obama in his Middle East policy? • Be as specific as possible! Use ‘How’ or ‘Why’

  8. Second homework: 27th February • Hand in the second part of your project (~1000 words) III. Hypotheses (max. 3 hypotheses): Offer possible answers to your research question. Explain why you think they seem to be valid. IV. Methodology: Explain what kind of evidence/data would prove your hypotheses. What research methods will help you to gather those data/evidence?

  9. Official deadline: 20th March • Hand in your final report which covers all 6 steps! -Submit 2 hard copies to the administrator’s office. -ANONYMOUS MARKING: NO NAME! Put your candidate number! Good luck 

  10. Case I • Topic: Media effects on authoritarian regimes • Research question: Were the East Germans who were watching west German TV more or less supportive of the communist regime in East Germany? • Read the handout with your group and answer the questions about the Case I.

  11. Case II • Topic: The effect of social pressure on people’s willingness to vote Research question: Do mails encouraging people to vote increase turnout? Read the handout with your group and answer the questions about the Case II.

  12. Information missing from the handout • According to the researchers, prior experimental studies on the topic might have been misleading because: [T]he mailings … announced to the subjects in large, bold type that they were part of an experiment, a feature that might be expected to induce a Hawthorne effect of its own. (2006: 36, fn 3)

  13. 4th letter: ‘Neighbours Mailing’

  14. Dido’s office hours for this term • On Monday from 2.30 to 3.30pm at FW102 • Or e-mail: m.d.buhari@rhul.ac.uk • Next week: COMPARISONS IN PIR

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