Uni Dissertation - Topics of Interest

[TheDonUK]

You will have to forgive the rambling nature of this post, its as much to clear this stuff in my head as it is to ask for advice.

So im right in the middle of my second year exams, on my International Politics course, they have seen it fit to force us a deadline next week by which we have to submit the proposed Title of our dissertations for next year.

Bearing in mind it can be anything covered by Politics, International Relations or History, at the moment just pulling things out of my head:

"Was the Cuban Missile Crisis the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union" - Although Kennedy had to remove american missiles from turkey in order to get krushchev to remove the missiles from cuba, the turkish removals were never public, and as such kruschev looked weak, and in cold-war brinkmanship there is no place for weakness in leadership, he was removed shortly after leading to a succession of leaders lacking what communism needed to survive...

Something relating to the increasing lack and cost of food having a global security impact - Either talking globally or focusing on one or two countries...

Something world war two related, perhaps more about the overall strategy (politically or militarily) rather than focusing on individual battles..

Anyone who finds Poltics/IR/History remotely interesting care to share something you find interesting and perhaps worth a closer look (12,000 words).

To give you and myself some more ideas here are the listed interests of lecturers i respect and would like to have as my dissertation supervisor.

Lecturer 1:
"International relations; national and international security; UK and US foreign and defence policy; intelligence and security services; public management and administration; conflict analysis."

Lecturer 2:
"Second World War; Cold War; US Foreign Policy, 1607-1991; Anglo-American relations; Anglo-Soviet relations; US History; African-American History; sport in US culture; the reign of Richard III."

Lecturer 3:
"Military / intelligence issues, including philosophy of war and intelligence, "4th Generation" warfare, digitisation, "Netcentric" warfare; covert action, incl. CIA--from creation to the current era; counter-insurgence."

Any ideas, comments or musings are more than welcome...

[JonB]

Never realised you were doing a degree so similar to mine!

I submitted my provisional dissertation topic last Thursday, I chose "A critical analysis of the “Domino Theory” as a need for entry into Vietnam in the 1960’s."

I could have done something WWI or II related, however I know so much on it I didn't feel I was going to learn anything from doing a research document on it and remember that is what a dissertation in Social science is all about really. Researching an area from scratch. If anything it makes researching easier as you have no prejudices before you start writing your dissertation.

At our university it has been stressed to make your title as tight as possible and to not encourage you to be descriptive in your dissertation. Hence why am I to write a "critical analysis" on the domino theory, i'm not going to sit down and describe what the domino theory was, when it was concieved etc. I'm going to find out why and how.

I'm actually looking forward to getting my head stuck into some books and become really clued up on something. As for writing it, well procrastination wins me over EVERY TIME.

Final note. I hate analysing foreign policy. My Foreign Policy Analysis module is the hardest ever and quite boring really.
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[TheDonUK]

We have also been advised to keep in narrow enough for it to be do-able, thats why i am hesitating to submit what i have, i have a tendency to go off on descriptive rants, and have to force myself to give analytical points.

Domino theory is a possibility, although i would sooner look at Geopolitical theory.

Thats my hesitation with WW2, I have a good overall understanding about what and when, and seeing as im doing Politics, i should probably do a dissertation more directly related.

My hate is Comparative Politics - quantative research methods, all that bullshit psudo-science crap, statistical analysis

Any other suggestions, one mans junk is another mans treasure and all that, what did you dismiss as ideas?

[stinkwheel]

Well. Mugabe is proving a popular subject once again.

Or you could look at why it is acceptable for Israel, a politically unstable, fundamentalist, agressive and highly intolerant state to posess a massive stockpile of thermonuclear weapons. While it is not acceptable for their neighbour Iran, a politically unstable, fundamentalist, agressive and highly intolerant state to have one.
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[JonB]

Was going to look at the events leading towards WW1. Specifically the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Thought of doing a critical analysis of the Locarno Treaty, however it seemed quite restrictive.

But ultimately I wanted to do Vietnam and as it has so much scope for exploration, I had to whittle it down and from this I secured some assistance from my assignment supervisor for 5 titles and she advised me on the best one. My 5 topics were:

*Was entry into Vietnam merely an exercise of gaining credibility in the international order post 1945?
*An analysis of the "domino theory" as a need for entry into Vietnam in the 1960's.
*Was resisting a revolution in South Vietnam truly a matter of U.S - China relations; or spin by the Kennedy administration for the U.S public?
*An analytical view on Vietnam's positioning in the world power balance and postwar history.
*How potent was the need in finding Ngo Dinh Diem for the U.S?
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[TheDonUK]

[JonB]

I like the Cuban Missile Crisis. It asks a lot of questions, there is a shedload of material on it. However i'm not sure on your question. The way I have been seeing it, the Soviet Union's downfall was that they were spending money on arms and the space race that they didn't actually have and it was going to bite them back in the end. It could have happened to Khrushchev, Breshnev, but unfortunately for Gorbechev it happened to him.

Although saying that you can put across lots of arguments in the Cuban Missile crisis as many people and myself included also see it as a minor victory for the USSR.

They were able to get Nuclear arsenal 90 miles off the coast of the USA with relative ease, put the USA on the back foot as up to this time the USSR couldn't really have deployed nuclear warhards halfway across the world. They only really had ICBM's.

The crux of it though was that they did get the Jupiter rockets out of Turkey. But like you said it was all shrouded in secrecy and on the world public stage he could have lost. For him he lost anyway as he was removed from power shortly afterwards.

Thinking about it, I should be doing the Cuban Missile Crisis. Not Vietnam.

I did just do an essay on the Bay of Pigs and the CMC so I kinda got bored of it though.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[TheDonUK]

When i say their downfall i mean in terms of respect, as far as i can tell by the time of the CMC the soviet union was falling behind in terms of the arms race- they had exploded the Tsar Bomb, But as far as missiles there was a "missile gap" in favour of the US,

Although perhaps in total terms it was a minor victory for the USSR, to the public the soviets backed down, and my argument would be that in a game of chicken, which is essentially what the cold war was, he who backs down first looses, With this you could also bring in vietnam and your question, in so far as that the CMC demonstrated to the world that the US was dithering in as far as what to do over cuba, and with all the alliances going on, allys needed to be reassured that america was good for its military support, hence vietnam, a massive pointless war of posturing that backfired in the end due to those resiliant vietnamese...

I think i will do something on the cuban missile crisis, i am just stuggling to phrase the title in such a way that it gives me enough room to cover all the bases but is not too-open ended...

Edit: Maybe something like "Was the Cuban Missile Crisis the beginning of a downward spiral of (global respect for the USA)/(eventual defeat for the soviet union)" ??

Bah im confusing myself a bit here a muddling up what im trying to argue, i hope it makes some kind of sense

[stinkwheel]

You seem to be fond of the subject of Cuba (avatar etc.).

Everyone seems to attack this from the angle of the nuclear arms race between the USSR and the USA.

Not many people seem to consider it from the point of view of the Cubans. Who, as far as I can see, are a fairly stable communist state, bordering on self-sufficiency and who in general seem pretty proud of what their revolution did for thier country despite the USAs best efforts to provide propoganda to the contrary.

A classic example I heard is that Cuba is leading the world in sustainable, locally produced foodstuffs and as such, Cubans have a superbly healthy diet.

They also all ride late 1960s MZ motorcycles, which is cool.

How did the missile crisis influence the development of the Cuban state as we see it today?
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[TheDonUK]

I do find Cuba quite an interesting place, its somewhere i would like to visit, Not only for the semi-spontaneous natue in which castro adopted communism, but his longevity, and defiance of america right on his doorstep.

the course is geared towards looking at the big fish if you will... but that is quite an interesting idea to approach it from the cuban POV, but to assess how it affected the cuban states development is intimidatingly broard, perhaps something for a Masters/PHD...

Plus i would imagine castro does not release too many classified documents into the public domain, As we are talking about the missile crisis in the 60's the US is starting to declassify primary sources which are a necesity for a dissertation, plus we have books published by Russian spys and suchlike, and then all the secondary material...

I appreciate the help i seem to have decided to do something related to the cuban missile crisis, now just to come up with the perfecly phrased question

[Visitor Q]

Hmm, a word of warning mate.
I did my dissertation /basically/ on evolution of lizards on islands. But i had to do a lit. review, and got aposematism (displaying signals to show defence) suggested in the end.

I decided to try a very broad subject, but it was only 3k, and i basically researched and mostly wrote a 6k essay. So i'm not really happy with the finished rant.

So if I were you, have a very good look at how the essay will pan out. Not just how much you know, but how much you can back up too.

You may find Cuba very interesting, but if the information sorrounding it is too bias or weak... or if you don't think you can fill a whole 12k essay then you may have a problem.

For my money though, pretty much anything from the Zeitgiest film if expanded upon would be cool. They also have half their sources listed so it would give you a head start.

False flag operations, world order etc.

Also another interesting thing politically would be collapse/dissolving of the british empire?
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[Visitor Q]

[Annabella]

You had the right idea when looking at who would make a good tutor. I specifically chose two dissertation subjects that would ensure I got the two professors I felt I would learn the most from.

Luckily I had a leading Russianist at the University who specialised in Stravinsky, so to make the most of his contacts and knowledge I wrote a dissertation about Shostakovich. I used my knowledge of Russian to give myself an advantage over other students and used recently released newspaper and journal articles from Russia and translated them which meant I had original material and a completely original viewpoint on a (very much debated) topic.

Try to think of areas where you have that level of an advantage. I got one of the highest marks in my year for that piece of work and it certainly wasn't marked on the title - "Would the Real Shostakovich Please Stand Up"!
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[TheDonUK]

Thats what i usually do with essays, the title, or at least introduction is the last thing down when i know what i am saying.

They want us to submit a title for either today or the FINAL deadline may 2nd, i assume so they can allocate us to dissertation supervisors... I think its harsh right in the middle of exams...

I will bare in mind what you said in your 1st post as well

[hellkat]

I think the whole food shortage/security thing is a just starting to come alive again.

So it might be that as you wrote, it would be constantly having to be rewritten.

But then, so is Cuba ... and Mugabe. Both fairly current events ATM.

History happens while we are getting on with our everyday lives.

If I was doing that, I'd probably like to poke about looking at the French farting about in the Pacific with nuclear weapons, culminating in the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior (and its after-events) But thats just me being patriotic rather than particularly radical-environmentalist and wanting to know more about the history of my own country since I havent been living there.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[queen of string]

Along with the food thing, I think fuel poverty in developed coutries might be seeing off an extra couple of million any day soon.
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