Hi, The essay is 2,500 words in length and is designed to fulfil the following requirements: • Test your ability to think analytically and critically about the major theoretical issues of the unit. • Test your ability to research around your chosen topic and pursue new arguments/material in the library through extra research as well as through demonstration of critical and independent thinking. Essay Question: The leadership of a strong state such as the US is crucial for addressing threats to global security. Do you agree? Critically discuss, using specific examples (eg. weapons of mass destruction, the war on global terrorism etc.). Sources: The aim of a research essay is to go beyond the required reading, and as such you are required to use your library skills to find recommended readings and others outside the seminar reading lists. Essays that rely on only a few sources will lose marks. Therefore, it is important that you allocate a good deal of thinking and research time when working on your essay. You need to start doing this as early as possible, not just in the last week before the essay is due. It is also vital to reference throughout your essay – ie. the sources for ALL your ideas and information, in addition to quotations. This is crucial in order to assess the quality of your work. Failure to reference is tantamount to reference is tantamount to plagiarism and is unacceptable. Recommended readings: • Chang, H. (2007), Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, New York: Bloomsbury Press. • Cowen, T. (2002), Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures, Princeton NJ and Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Dicken, P. (2011), Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy, 6th edition, New York: Guildford Press. • Glenn, J. (2007), Globalization: North-South Perspectives, London and New York: Routlegde. • Hale, T., Held, D. and Young, K. (2013), Gridlock: Why Global Cooperation is Failing when we Need it Most, Cambridge: Polity Press. • Held, D. and McGrew, A. eds. (2003), The Global Transformations Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate, Cambridge: Polity Press. • Held, D. and McGrew, A. eds. (2007), Globalisation Theory: Approaches and Controversies, Cambridge: Polity Press • Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D., and Perraton, J. (1999), Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture, Stanford: Stanford University Press. • Hirst, P., Thompson, G. and Bromley, S. (2009) Globalisation in Question, 3rd edition, Cambridge: Polity Press. • Lechner, F.J. and Boli, J. (2012), The Globalization Reader, 4th edition, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. • Osterhammel, J. and Petersson, N.P. (2005), Globalization: A Short History, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. • Sparke, M. (2013), Introducing Globalization: Ties, Tensions and Uneven Integration, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. • Scholte, J.A (2005), Globalization: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. • Stiglitz, J. (2002), Globalization and Its Discontents, New York and London: W.W. Norton and Co. • Turner, Bryan S. (2010), The Routledge International Handbook of Globalization Studies, Abingdon: Routledge. • Ritzer, George (2010), Globalization: A Basic Text, Malden: Wiley Blackwell. • Weiss, L. (1998), The Myth of the Powerless State, Cambridge: Polity Press. • Weiss, L. ed. (2003), States in the Global Economy: Bringing Domestic Institutions Back In, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. _____________________________________________ General Guidance A vitally important element in passing written assignments is preparation. This means organising your work to give you sufficient time to prepare, read and write-up. Don't leave an assignment until the last day or so and then limit your reading to lecture notes and one or two books/articles. Your lecture notes are simply introductory guides, and after you have consulted them, you should set them aside and concentrate on reading widely. This will provide you with examples, arguments, issues and analysis not contained in the lectures. There is no 'right' answer to an assignment. Any topic or question may be approached in a multitude of perfectly legitimate ways. Bearing this in mind, the task is to provide a structured, coherent, substantial, reflective and credible 'answer' to the specific question being asked. A good assignment should display the following attributes: • A clear understanding of what the question is asking (or what you think it is asking) and a comprehension of the main issues raised. You must show that you are addressing the specific question being asked. • A well-defined structure that makes sense in terms of the question set. For the essay, it is a good idea to identify the structure of the assignment in the introduction, so that the reader is given a context and has a reasonably good idea what to expect. Do not treat your assignments as a 'Who Done It?' novel where the reader is mystified the whole way through and the 'answer' only becomes clear right at the end. • Evidence of wide reading through the use of relevant quotations, examples, statistics etc. This is very important, because it adds to the substantive nature and credibility of the work as a whole. • Critical analysis of literature/themes/issues/evidence/arguments through pointing to flows in these, by 'bouncing' one argument of another etc. You must show that you are attempting to answer the question in an 'academic' manner. Do not use words such as 'I', and do not say 'I think that...' or 'I believe that...;. This does not mean, however, that you should not put your own views in an answer. Indeed, you are encouraged to do so. But it is important to do so in an 'academic' manner. This means showing that you are aware of competing arguments and 'suggesting' for example, that a particular argument or line of analysis seems particularly useful/strong/problematic/weak etc., by pointing to relevant examples/evidence which justify this contention. At all costs, avoid one-sided assertion. • For your essay, a conclusion which indicates that you have actually answered the set question and dealt with the issues raised by it. In this regard, it should be noted that you do not have to answer a question with a definitive 'yes' or 'no'. In many questions, you will find a variety of conflicting arguments and evidence. Thus, it is just as much an 'answer' to explain why the variety of arguments/evidence make it very difficult to produce a definitive answer. Bibliography and References It is standard academic practice to provide a list of all publications used in producing any written assignment, such as an essay, and to ensure that all quotes/figures are traceable to their original source. It is the purpose of the bibliography and references to provide this information. It is important that you are aware of academically acceptable ways of going about providing the required information. A solid bibliography and referencing system contributes to the overall 'credibility' of a piece of work. The following is a brief guide to how you should go about this. All written work submitted must include a bibliography. The bibliography is a listing of all publications consulted in producing a piece of work. Key points to note about this are: • The bibliography should be at the end of the assignment. • All publications that have been referenced/cited in the main body of the assignment should be listed in the bibliography. Conversely, all publications listed in the bibliography should be referenced/cited in the main body of the assignment. • Publications should be listed in alphabetical order by author surname, whether this is an individual or an organisation. • For books: Each listing should identify the author(s), year of publication, title of book, edition (if there is more than one edition), place of publication and publisher. o The title of the book should be underlined or placed in italics. o If the source is a chapter in an edited collection, details on both the contribution to this edited collection, and the edited collection itself, should be included. • For journal articles: Each listing should identify the author(s), year of publication, title of article and the journal in which it is published, volume and issue, and page numbers. o The title of the article should be put in inverted commas and the name of the journal should be underlined or placed in italics. • Internet sites: Procedures for dealing with internet sites are still developing and no standard has yet emerged. In the meantime, you should list the full web address for any internet sites you have consulted and made some use of. Also, if you use a document that you have obtained from the internet, you should give as full a reference as you would normally do, the web address, and the date accessed. • Other references: For magazines, newspaper articles etc., some variation on the above should be used, providing as much information as possible. Examples are as follows: Hogwood, B.W. and L. Gunn (1984), Policy Analysis for the Real World, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Papadakis, E. and L. Young (2000), "Mediating Clashing Values: Environmental Policy", in G. Davis and M. Keating eds., The Future of Governance, Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Rosenthal, U. (2003), "September 11: Public Administration and the Study of Crises and Crisis Management,", Administration & Society, Vol.35, No.2, pp.129-143. Zappalà, G. (2003), Corporate Citizenship and the Role of Government: The Public Policy Case, Research Paper No. 4, Canberra: Information and Research Services of the Department of the Parliamentary Library, http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rp/2003-04/04RP04.pdf, accessed 18 June 2008. References, sometimes called citations, must be used in the main body of the essay/seminar paper so that quotes, figures, ideas, theories and opinions are traceable to the original source (remembering that the reference is where you got it from). For this subject, the Harvard system is preferred. Using this system, references are contained in the main body of the essay/written assignment in brackets. The basic idea is that you cite the name of the author(s), followed by the year of publication in brackets. The relevant page number(s) should also be given for a specific quotation, fact or argument. Examples are as follows: • As Dillon (1976: 47) notes, "there is no one universally acclaimed definition of policy". • This is defined as "general directives...on the main lines of actions to be followed" (Dror 1983: 14). • Authors in this wave see the reality and unavoidability of neoliberal market deregulation as undermining the sovereignty of states (e.g. Ohmae 1995; Strange 1996 and 1997) Using this method, the Bibliography at the end would simply read: Dillon, G.M. (1976), "Policy and Dramaturgy: A Critique of Current Conceptions of PolicyMaking," Policy and Politics, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 47-62. Dror, Y. (1983), Public Policymaking Re-examined, 2nd edition, New Brunswick: Transaction. Ohmae, K. (1990), The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy, London: Collins. Strange, S. (1996), The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Strange, S. (1997), "The Future of Global Capitalism; or Will Divergence Persist Forever?", in C. Crouch and W. Streeck eds., Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity, London: Sage Publications. There are alternatives to the Harvard system (eg. footnote systems such as Cambridge). These are also acceptable, as long as the method chosen is consistent, demonstrates that you have sources for your work, and allows the reader/marker to check your sources. For examples, and further details, consult the University of Sydney's WriteSite (http://writesite.elearn.usyd.edu.au).