Students are required to write a research paper on the question: Should the international community adopt a global ban on nuclear weapons? Students should carefully read and follow all of the writing assignment instructions and paper guidelines provided below. This writing assignment will be scored solely on the basis of students closely following the writing assignment instructions and paper guidelines provided below. A scoring rubric is located at the end of the printed or printable version of the syllabus. The instructor will provide feedback on an optional draft version of the paper if it is submitted to the instructor by Tuesday, April 1, 2025. The final version of the paper is due on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. The paper should be emailed to the instructor as either a Word document or a shared Google document. No other document format will be accepted. The paper is worth up to 100 points. The scores for the papers will be posted in MyGrades on Blackboard on or prior to the date of the last examination in this course. Papers submitted after the due date will be penalized ten points each day after April 15th. The writing assignment should include each of the following four sections, which should be clearly indicated by the bolded and numbered headings as shown below. Aside from these headings, please do not include any sub-headings in this paper. Please carefully read the instructions for each of the four sections of the paper provided below. Each section has a minimum page range. Ideally, sections will be longer than the top of the minimum page ranges, but none of the sections should be shorter than the bottom of the minimum page ranges.
I. Introduction (2 to 3 pages) – This section of the paper should consist of a summary of the origins and development of nuclear weapons by the United States and other countries since the 1940s. The section should also consist of a summary of the main international (multilateral) efforts to regulate the development, testing, and possession of nuclear weapons since the end of the Second World War, culminating in the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in July 2017. In this paper, you do not need to provide information about any of the bilateral arms control agreements between the U.S. and the Soviet Union/Russia. See below for more instructions for this section of the paper:
- Do not discuss the official governmental positions of countries pertaining to the TPNW in this section of the paper. That will be done in the Case Study Analysis section of the paper.
- You should use and properly cite a minimum of three different academic and other professional sources of information in this section of the paper. Three sources are a minimum, not a maximum. You should use as many sources as is necessary to properly write this section of the paper.
- Do not directly refer to the names of scholars or authors, the titles of articles, or the names of publications in this section of the paper. All of the information regarding a source should be provided on the references page at the end of the paper or (if appropriate) in a footnote.
- Do not express your opinions about nuclear weapons in this section of the paper. That should only be done at the end of the Conclusion section of the paper.
II. Literature Review (2 to 3 pages) – This section of the paper should consist of a summary of the main points or arguments made by scholars regarding nuclear weapons and a possible global ban on nuclear weapons. The summaries must be based on arguments published in at least three different peer-reviewed, scholarly articles that are provided by the instructor in a shared Google folder labeled as “Scholarly Articles”. Articles that are not provided by the instructor in the shared Google folder labeled as “Scholarly Articles” may not be used in this section of the paper under any circumstances. After summarizing the main arguments made by the scholars in each of the three scholarly articles, briefly discuss any areas of agreement and/or disagreement among the scholars. See below for more instructions for this section of the paper:
- Do not summarize everything that is written in the scholarly articles. You should only summarize the main arguments made by the scholars in the articles. Make sure to read the articles so that you understand the main arguments being made by the scholars regarding nuclear weapons and a possible global ban on nuclear weapons.
- Do not summarize or refer to any other sources of information, except for the scholarly articles that are provided by the instructor for this section of the paper.
- Do not directly refer to the titles of articles or the names of the publications in this section of the paper. This information should only be provided on the References page at the end of the paper.
- You should directly refer to the full names of the scholars and the publication year at the start of each summary – e.g., John Smith (2020) argued that nuclear weapons should be banned globally. After you have referred to the full name of the scholar and the publication year at the start of the summary, you can subsequently refer to the author by his or her last name – e.g., Smith suggested that the use of nuclear weapons is a violation of international law. Do not refer to the terms ”article” or “articles” in your summary; instead refer directly to the name or names of the scholars whose main arguments you are summarizing.
- You do not need to insert parenthetical citations at the end of sentences or paragraphs in this section of the paper. Citations are not necessary since you will be directly referring to the names of scholars and publication years at the start of the summaries. This is the only section of the paper in which you will directly refer to the names of scholars or provide summaries of articles.
- Do not express your opinions about the main arguments made by the scholars regarding nuclear weapons in this section of the paper.
III. Case Study Analysis (3 to 4 pages) – This section of the paper should consist of your analysis of the official positions held by the governments of three different countries regarding the TPNW. For each of the three countries that you choose, first describe the official position of the country’s government or government officials regarding the TPNW and then provide an explanation of the official position of the country’s government or government officials regarding the TPNW. In other words, you should identify and explain the political, military, and other factors that may be influencing a government’s decision regarding the TPNW. See below for more instructions for this section of the paper:
- You should use and properly cite a minimum of six different academic and other professional sources of information in this section of the paper, including at least two different sources for each of the three countries.
- Do not simply summarize information from a source about a country. It should be your analysis of the country’s official position regarding the TPNW, not the source’s analysis of the official position.
- Do not directly refer to the names of scholars or authors, the titles of articles, or the names of publications in this section of the paper, except in the citations. All of the information regarding a source should be provided on the references page or (if appropriate) in a footnote.
- Do not express your opinions about the countries’ official positions regarding the TPNW.
IV. Conclusion (1 to 2 pages) – This section of the paper should consist of your summary of the results of the case study analysis in the previous section, as well as an explanation of your opinions about the question of whether the international community should adopt and implement a global ban on nuclear weapons.
References – At the end of the paper, all sources of information cited in parenthetical citations should be listed in alphabetical order on the References page, including the author’s full last name/first name or the formal name of the organization, publication year or date of the source, the title of the article or document, the name of the publication, volume number, and page numbers (see pages 41-55 in the Political Science Style Manual). For scholarly articles obtained from the internet, a short version of the URL (uniform resource locater) or the DOI (digital object identifier) may be included on the References page. If you provide a hyperlink to a URL or DOI, make sure that the hyperlink goes directly to the source. If a hyperlink does not go directly to the source or cannot be accessed without having to sign into an account, please do not include those types of hyperlinks on the References page. Please do not use the phrase “Retrieved from” on the References page in this paper. It is not necessary to indicate the date on which you “retrieved” a source. For sources that do not have a publication date, you should indicate the date on which you “accessed” the source. Sources of information, such as an international agreement, cited in footnotes do not need to be listed on the References page. Please do not refer to the References page as “Works Cited”. Below is an example of how information about a source should be provided on the References page.
References
Graham, Kennedy. 2020. “The TPNW Conference of Parties: What is to be Discussed?”, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, volume
3 (2), pp. 234-252, DOI: 0.1080/25751654.2020.1856555.