International Relations: Germany’s Migration Policies

Overview
For your final project, you will submit a 1,750-3,000 word (that's about 7 to 12 pages--but feel free to be on the short side :) ) report regarding how international relations are taking place right now in the world. This is your chance to put what we've learned in the class into practice!
This assignment will help you integrate your understanding of theory and the real world. This will help you achieve the Advanced Learning Objectives for this course:
Plan research into key contemporary international issues
Integrate material from course readings and lectures with real-world research
Appraise the prospects for international conflict and cooperation on key issues
Present research findings in a cogent, professional, and attractive fashion
Remember, the goal of this assignment is to make sure that you can apply theories and concepts from the course to events happening in the real world. You will want to use the facts you gather to critique and apply theories and material from the course, not to develop your own idiosyncratic arguments.
This is not a term paper. Don't treat it like one. It is a structured assignment that will help you analyze how world politics really take place.
Assignment Substance
To carry out this assignment, you will focus on one of each:
a country or international organization
a substantive area
From these, you will explain how this country or international organization is approaching the substantive area you are addressing. You will narrow this down by identifying an important topic within this relationship that you will explore more in depth. Having identified your pair of country and topic, you will apply theories and concepts from the course to demonstrate how they can help you understand what is happening (or whether they have limits that you will also demonstrate).
The countries/organizations you can choose from are:
Brazil
Canada
China (PRC)
Egypt
European Union
Ethiopia
France
Germany
India
International Monetary Fund
Iran
Japan
Mexico
Nigeria
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Pakistan
Russia
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Taiwan
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United Nations
World Bank
Categories of the substantive areas include
economic issues (including trade, investment, intellectual property, and so on). Specific examples may include international trade, finance, and monetary relations; development assistance and other forms of foreign aid; negotiations regarding trade and other international economic agreements; intellectual property rights; the implications of international climate and environmental factors; and similar items
social issues (including human rights, hierarchies of race or gender, indigenous issues, migration, and so on). Specific examples may include the treatment of minorities; relations with outside groups and international organizations over social issues; issues regarding to human rights; migration and refugee status; and similar items.
security issues (including military, terrorism, and international law-enforcement issues). Specific examples may involve military-to-military cooperation; arms sales; the basing of military troops, naval vessels, or airplanes; intelligence cooperation; training for security forces, such as for counterterrorism; the development or restriction of nuclear weapons; and similar items
diplomatic issues (including negotiations over treaties and disputes between governments). Specific examples may include diplomatic relations; negotiations of treaties and other international agreements; policies toward international and nongovernmental organizations; international climate and environmental agreements; and similar items
Many issues involve a mixture of these categories, but you will be focusing on the issues most relevant to what you have chosen. You may be as broad or as specific within each category as you please, so long as you are able to create a coherent product that meets our specifications.
Choosing a topic will include finding a current debate, controversy, or development relevant to international relations. This will be something specific within the substantive area you are discussing.
You will do some initial research to figure out what specific topic you will address. That could mean just reading a news article or two about how your country/organization approaches the issue and finding what looks to be most important; you can also (and should also) consult the reference sources. Make this choice consciously, because you want a topic that you will actually be able to find enough about to sustain an entire paper on. (You can revise it, but you'd have to re-do the proposal.)
If you find you need more guidance regarding your paper topics, you should contact the professor or a teaching assistant.
Final Paper Proposal
After you've made your choice, you will write a 250-750 word (1 page to 3 pages) proposal laying out
what country/organization and topic you intend to study (for instance, Italy and migration)
what specific topic you will focus on (for example, dealing with migrants crossing the Mediterranean)
what theories and concepts from the course you will use for the assignment (for instance, human rights and nationalism)
what sources and search strategies you will use to find information (be detailed: what databases/sources will you use? You can't just say Google--look at the specific sources we have listed for you and explain how you will use them.) We even want you to specify the keywords do you think will work when you search those sources. You really need to plan this!
You cannot proceed with the main assignment until you have received a passing grade (90%+) on this assignment. You should expect that you will get some to a lot of feedback and have to re-do this at least once. But it will make the final project much easier (and your grade much better).
Main Assignment Requirements
In the final assignment, you will
clearly identify the topic, the institution, and the country or organization you are studying
provide relevant background information, including any recent history
identify and describe different theories or perspectives from the course that are relevant to this topic
apply a theory or concept from the course to the topic, showing how it can make sense of what different interests, institutions (including informal institutions), and interactions are involved in this topic
describe what the country/organization you are focusing on wants to happen (its goals), who its allies and adversaries are (and what their goals are), and what strategies it is using, as well as how successful it has been to date
extrapolate what you think is likely to happen in the short term (the next 6 to 12 months) and the medium term (the next 1 to 5 years) based on what theory tells you.
THEN, and ONLY THEN, write the executive summary:
recap the issue
state why it's important
talk about the most essential points of what's going on
explain your analysis and predictions
state your confidence (high confidence, medium confidence, low confidence) in your analysis, and describe the limitations of your analysis. By "confidence", I mean your analytic confidence: how good do you think the evidence available to you is? how well do you think the concepts you've identified fit the situation you're examining? In other words, this isn't about you so don't say "I have low confidence because I'm a sophomore".
The Executive Summary will be the FIRST part of your essay. BUT! You will write it LAST! You want it to be a true and accurate summary of what you've written, and that means that you should have already written what you're summarizing.
I've broken the assignment down into clear, bullet-pointed requirements. Follow those. Use subheads or other clear signals to demonstrate how you are meeting the requirements.
Sources and Articles
You will refer to at least 9 different news articles or reference sources taken only from the approved source list. You will cite these resources using Chicago footnote style. You will lose points if you do not follow these formatting instructions. For this assignment, you must include a bibliography at the end of the paper as well as the footnotes. You may also refer to two or three news releases, speeches, or other Web sites from the institution's Web site; cite these in the same way. This is not required and these will not count toward the nine required sources, but you may find it useful.
Please note that "footnotes" and "footers" are different. If you don't know how to add footnotes or use citation software, there's literally thousands of guides for Word and Google Drive out there--go to Google, Bing, or Duck Duck Go and learn about them.
These articles must be current. You may cite articles from the approved sources only. These articles should date from no earlier than July 1, 2022, but at least four of these articles must date from February 1, 2023, and afterward. We can and will mark you down if your review of sources does not identify relevant, late-breaking information (for example, if you try to write about Russia without discussing the impact of the war on Ukraine). Reference sources, such as Europa World, are exempt from these date requirements--but, again, you need to make sure you're actually dealing with timely matters.
You will also refer to course materials and readings. (This will be especially useful when you are writing about course materials and theories!) Cite these with footnotes (e.g., "Professor Musgrave, course lecture, Unit 1, Module 1"; "Scott and Rosati, p. 125".) Do not include these in the bibliography. These do not count toward your nine articles.