How to do a Literature Review

IMPORTANT NOTE: DON'T CHEAT. DON'T PLAGIARIZE. Notes and Papers are shared here for reference and for studying. Footnote as appropriate.

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

How to do a Literature Review

This is a great document widely available on the web by a former professor at NPS.

I am doing my thesis proposal this quarter and found this document on how to write a literature review to be invaluable.

There's also a video by the professor on the subject.
http://www.nps.edu/video/portal/Video.aspx?enc=VQRI1%2Ft0jcMx3RtMJ3k4hSFXkXRQBfXP

How to Write an A+ Paper in Grad School

Brief Notes on Biopolitics, Militarism and Development in Eritrea

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Brief notes on Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development: Eritrea in the Twenty-first Century (Dislocations) edited by O’Kane and Hepner

Definitely not the most enthralling book you'll ever read, but a good primer on Eritrea.

Background:

Colony of Italy, relatively developed.  Post WWII federated to and then annexed by Ethiopia in 1961.  EPLF wasn’t original movement but comprised of lowland muslims.  1993 they are granted independence. 

Ethiopia and Eritrea had opposite views of development.  First, economic, the political strains on the border, then all out war where at least 100K died.  Mostly over 1 town: Bahgmay but then it expanded (similar to current sudan situation except that it didn’t carry the same history of a long negotiation).  The two countries didn’t originally give much thought to the border.  What was the war really about?  A conflict between local communities on either side of the border?  It wasn’t really about the border since there were no resources but it was more borne from a stubbornness of the Eritreans that ‘had fought for this for 30 years.’

Eventually, Somalis broke through and defeated Eritreans to the point where they accepted defeat and negotiated peace settlement with the UN arbitrating the border.  Eritreans didn’t originally like the UN border but then they noticed that they had the town of Bahmay—just not the land around it.  So then the Eritreans were happy but Ethiopia wasn’t and wouldn’t accept it—they’ve since effectively occupied Bahmay—and there’s been a cold war ever since.  Both sides fund/support destabilizing groups in each other’s nations. 

Originally Eritrean government was going to use mobilized security forces to do development projects (hence their original rationale for not demobilizing).  But since the border war, they have not been used this way.

They (Turabi in Sudan and Eritrea) both want to produce national identity defined by commonality and to use the state to remake society… but ?

To Consider When Reading:

What do they say about the model of nation-building?

Authors are trying to understand what Eritrean plan is and to what extent are they driven by an over-response (or is it an appropriate response) to the war?

How are Eritrean people reacting to this complete government control of society?

All you ever wanted to know about the Gulf of Tonkin, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

All you ever wanted to know about the Gulf of Tonkin, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs.

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: A Response to Which Campaign?

        A few days after announcing to the American public that North Vietnam had attacked the United States a second time in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Lyndon Baines Johnson remarked to the most vocal opponent of his administration’s policy in Vietnam, undersecretary of state George Ball, “Hell, those damn, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish.”1 This statement not only reflected Johnson’s doubt that the 4 August 1964 attacks occurred, but also showed his confidence at having the full support of all but two members of Congress for any further action he might take. This cavalier
treatment of the military’s intelligence failure, however, was a manifestation of his marked disassociation of foreign policy decision-making from military analysis. Flawed intelligence—amplified by a weak Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)—enabled Johnson to wield the 4 August attacks to win Congress’ full support for future military measures and to ensure his own election victory in November 1964. Throughout his first year, the president only used military intelligence and counsel selectively to support his domestic agenda. He discounted the advice from his ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam (former JCS Chairman Maxwell Taylor) and the Joint Chiefs when it ran contrary toSecretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s strategy. The events leading to the Southeast Asia Joint Resolution (commonly called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) on 7 August illustrate well LBJ’s foreign policy decision-making methods absent military guidance, as well as their wide-reaching effects.

The rest of my paper is below.


While we are on the subject of Vietnam, if you haven't read Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, you MUST.  The best book ever written about Vietnam in my definitive opinion.

LINKS:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/06/incredible-must-read-matterhorn-by-karl.html

Three Africa Reports You May Have Missed

Conflict Trends (No. 6): Real-time Analysis of African Political Violence, September 2012 

This month’s  Conflict Trends report is the sixth monthly publication by the Armed Conflict Location
& Event Dataset (ACLED) publishing and analysing realtime disaggregated data on political conflict on the African continent. This issue will focus on developments in  Côte d’Ivoire, DR-Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Realtime data for the month of August is presented, analysed and compared with longer-term trends to explore patterns in actors, modalities and geographies of violence.

Cultivating the Future: Exploring the Potential and Impact of a Green Revolution in Africa

Despite possessing large tracts of rich, uncultivated land, Africa is a net importer of food and suffers
from high levels of undernutrition. Some scholars have argued that a ‘Green Revolution’, defined by
increasing crop yields and land under cultivation, could bring about a more sustainable future for the
continent. However, simply increasing yields and land under cultivation could lead to a world where
buying steak in Europe is cheap while millions of Africans continue to go hungry or even starve. In
this policy brief we explore the scope and impacts of policy choices that would increase yields and
land under cultivation in Africa, and facilitate the regional consumption of food by those in need.

Arms Transfers and Armed Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa 

Most states in sub-Saharan Africa rely on the ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ transfer of arms and conventional weapons to supply their needs. Together with our partners at SIPRI, today we explore whether these transfers lead to or exacerbate conflicts in the region.

LINKS:
http://www.acleddata.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ACLED_Conflict-Trends-Report-No.-6-September-2012.pdf

http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/No4Aug2012.pdf

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Special-Feature/Detail?lng=en&id=152393&contextid774=152393&contextid775=152383&tabid=1453315360

Curious about Copts? A Wedding Feast for Copts and Islamists

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Are you curious about the Copts that you have been hearing about in the news?  

I just finished a paper on Coptic Christianity and its contemporary relevance.  You can read/download it here and I have embedded it below.  I've also included its first and last paragraph in the case that google docs is acting up.

A Wedding Feast for Copts and Islamists

              The state of Egypt has an ancient history—it lays legitimate claim as one of the

cradles of civilization. Throughout its history its soil has been the battleground for the struggle

between political empires, as well as spiritual ones. The Gospel of Matthew relates that it was to

Egypt that Joseph, Mary, and their newborn Jesus escaped and lived for three years after Herod

ordered the execution of all male children under the age of two.1 Nearly 50 years later it was to

Alexandria that Saint Mark the Evangelist traveled to preach the gospel for ten years, birthing

the Coptic Christian faith. The term Copt is itself a derivation of the Greek word for an

inhabitant of Egypt—aiguptos—a word Arab conquerors would translate as qibt—“copt ” in

English.2 The relationship between Islam and Christianity is one that spans back 1500 years. It

is too soon to analyze what the newly elected Islamist government means for the Copts. It is

more fruitful to examine the Coptic history and its intersections with Islam. How has the Coptic

Christian identity evolved since the first century? What is its contemporary relevance? How has

the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt viewed the Coptic population? Is a common Egyptian

identity possible? In this essay I argue that the Coptic Christian identity is rooted in a historical

narrative of dhimmitude that continues to stymie their role in Egypt today. Creating a new

common psychocultural narrative will require the Coptic community to emerge from political

monasticism and the Islamists to broaden their conception of the dhimmah. I begin by

examining the history and etymology of the dhimmi identity at length. Next, I review the

influence of the Arab conquest upon the Coptic population and its faith. Then I analyze the

relationship of the Coptic population to political developments in Egypt’s modern history.

Finally, I offer strategies for Muslim-Christian convergence to effect a new, unifying Egyptian

identity.

Conclusion Paragraph: 
        As mentioned earlier, both groups share a common ethnicity that exists beyond a
structuralist definition connecting it to modernization; their ethnicity is a primordial one,
stemming from a sense of shared blood—a psychological glue that binds and distinguishes them
from other Arabs—one that has driven the two groups to make sacrifices for the entire nation
throughout Egypt’s history.57 The gaps then must be closed; divisive symbols such as
identification cards listing religion must be permanently abolished. Dramas such as religious
feasts and parades must be modified and celebrated together.58 Notably both groups must
embrace new approaches to their religious differences. One solution may be in the newly
established Christian Brotherhood. This political group seeks to replace the church as a
democratic mouthpiece for the Coptic population.59 As Morsi’s Coptic advisor Rafiq Habib has
pointed out, a Christian political party will likely have more in common with a conservative
Muslim bloc like the MB on most social issues than the secular parties do. Most Copts and
Islamists certainly espouse similar feelings of antipathy towards Israel and Western intrusion.
Steps such as the recent formation of a political party are important ones that bring the Coptic
community into the public discourse. For most of their history the Copts have allowed the
church to operate as their political interlocutor. Sometimes as a survival mechanism, Copts have
internalized their dhimmitude and too often espoused political monasticism; they have
withdrawn from public discourse and existed passively, depending on the church to represent
them. Emerging from this seclusion will require risks but with the world’s eyes on Egypt they
are well poised to permanently discard their “conquered” dhimmi status. The largest challenge
will be for the Islamists to widen their own dhimmah with God to cover all of their countrymen.
In doing so they may be able to embrace a new future reflective of the dhimmah of a wedding feast and Egypt may one day celebrate the marriage and birth of a new common identity for their country.

ENTIRE PAPER BELOW

Entire Notes for Grad School International Relations Notes

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Entire Notes for Grad School International Relations Notes

Analysis Roundup on Libya and Egypt--all Islamists Are Not The Same

Analysis on Libya and Egypt

I will be posting links here to good articles and analysis that I read throughout the day.  I think it is important to follow the news but more important to think analytically and address the problems critically.

All analysis should stem from the recognition that Islam, Islamism, Jihadism are not monolithic.  While they may have common roots, they each contain myriad variations influenced and shaped by local conditions.  If you want more on the history of Islamism and my thought process, I wrote a paper on it here (I've also embedded it at the bottom of this post).

One of the most important things that you can take away from this is that Islamism is not the same in each country.  "Salafism" is not the same in each country for that matter.  They are all shaped by local (i.e., state conditions).  The response required to militants in Egypt and Libya is necessarily unique in each case.  Reticence by some Islamists or Islamists' parties (or Morsi) to condemn the violence may make them jerks but it does not mean they condone (or are responsible for) the violence.  The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt for example has been working to arrive at their politically dominant position since the 20's--they are nothing if not pragmatic.  Aside from that, Morsi was never their first choice for the Presidency--he has made some strong moves but it still uneasy and insecure about his position as he straddles the aisle between a wide span of political parties.  Alienation of the US is likely the last product desired by political leadership in Egypt.  

Lastly, it's been 33 years since a US Ambassador has been killed overseas (Adolph Dubs--in Afghanistan).   It is a BIG deal for an Ambassador to be killed.  I hear they are sending in the Marines--read the Abu Muqawama blog below for more background on that--there is sure to be no worse enemy for the militant murderers.

**I just finished 4500 words on the Coptic Christians that I will post tomorrow if you are interested in their history and contemporary relevance.


LINKS (updated throughout the day):

Benghazi, Cairo, and the "New" Force Protection Reality

Al-Shalchi's ongoing definitive account of events on the ground in Libya

The Collision Between Blasphemy and the First Amendment  - The Atlantic

Jihadism in Libya

Behind the anti-Muhammad movie – a new pastor Terry Jones?

Sec Clintons Remarks on Murders in Libya

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57511043/libya-assault-on-u.s-consulate-in-benghazi-leaves-4-dead-including-u.s-ambassador-j-christopher-stevens/

Amb. Stevens introduces himself to Libyan people

http://www.muslimcomment.com/blog/2012/09/12/my-thoughts-as-an-american-muslim-to-the-bacile-film/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/12/us-libya-usa-attack-idUSBRE88B0EI20120912

http://progressiverealist.org/blogpost/u-s-ambassador-libya-3-others-killed

http://rethinkingsecurity.tumblr.com/post/31384538806/observations-on-embassy-attacks

http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2012/09/benghazi-and-diplomacys-hard-power.html

Graphic on Power in Africa

In Praise of Refworks--The Best Reference Management Tool?

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

In Praise of Refworks

Do you have a favorite program that you use to manage your references?  Before coming to grad school I never thought twice about this.  Truthfully, I didn't think twice about it for my first two quarters.  I didn't have too many papers to write-and the ones that I did write were on varied topics.

Now that I am finishing my third quarter, I have become an unabashed believer in the absolute need for some system--any system really--to keep track of your references.

For me that answer has been RefWorks.  I will admit, my initial motivation to use it was that it is free from NPS students (and alumni I might add--if you were a student here, you can contact alumni affairs and they can make sure you are set up to maintain your use of library research capabilities).  But I researched EndNotes as well, and while I see its merits, ultimately the cloud capability of RefWorks is what sold me (although I understand that EndNote X6--the latest version--has incorporated a cloud capability too).

The feature in RefWorks that will provide me with the most long term utility though are the USER FIELDS for each reference that you add to your library.  I paste my notes for each reference into this field.  This gives me the ability to find an essay or article that I read from years ago through a keyword search in the program.  I often will remember that I read about an idea somewhere but won't be able to recall the exact article--that problem no longer exists.

As I plan on writing for the rest of my life (to include books one day), the benefits of this RefWorks will continue to grow as my research does.

What Reference Management System do you use and why?  

Writing Tips from Previous Blog Posts:

How to Write an A+ Paper

My Personal Editing Checklist

On Revising Well or “Taking the ax to your work” or “Getting the words right”

101 Writing Tips from Famous Authors

Check out this book: In the Shadow of Greatness

Check out In the Shadow of Greatness, written by  officers from the Naval Academy Class of 2001+1.  

I look forward to reading this after finals during my week-long break.  Here's a teaser from Amazon:

They were walking to class on 9/11 when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were struck. These midshipmen were soon to graduate from the Naval Academy into a nation at war, the first officers to do so since Vietnam. The men and women of the Class of 2002 lost their youth to a decade of deployments and their innocence on battlefields in distant places. Each story provides a glimpse into the lives of modern day Navy or Marine Corps officers who were faced with unique challenges and sacrifices. Their stories poignantly explain the trials of war and reveal a world many don't understand. Refreshingly honest, their narratives take readers on a journey from Annapolis to the far corners of the world to experience the unique challenges of operations at sea, on the land, and in the skies. Themes of leadership and service are on display throughout.

The editors spent three years inviting their classmates to open up their hearts to share what they endured on the frontlines. The end product is a superb collection of experiences that depict what Admiral Mike Mullen, USN (Ret.), 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, calls 'the next greatest generation.' Serving as a virtual podium for the voices of those unlikely to write about war, these first-person accounts of real-world operations are written with humility and respect for those they served with, bringing deserved recognition to all veterans of this so called 'Long War.' With a foreword by David Gergen.

LINKS:
Read their blog: http://shadowofgreatness.com/isogblog/
Follow on Twitter: @ShdwoGreatness
Amazon link for In the Shadow of Greatness