Notes and Papers Collection (Africa, IR, Ethnic Conflict, Economics, Writing)

Grad School Notes Collection
(Africa, IR, Ethnic Conflict, Economics, Writing, Islam, Comparative Politics)

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

Below are the links to all the notes I have previously published here on FUUO. They are organized into seven areas: Africa, International Relations, Writing, Ethnic Conflict, Economics, Islam, Comparative Politics, and Vietnam/Decision-Making. (For over 300 of my wider book reviews and recommendations, visit Dad's Bookshelf.)

Africa

Books – Chinua Achebe Collection

• Arrow of God (notes and summary)
• Arrow of God (discussion and summary)
• Anthills of the Savannah (discussion and summary)
• A Man of the People (discussion and summary)
• No Longer at Ease (discussion and summary)
• Things Fall Apart (discussion and summary)

Books – General Africa

• Barcott's It Happened on the Way to War
• Bates's Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies
• Bradbury's Becoming Somaliland (brief with discussion questions)
• Gallab's The First Islamist Republic (partial)
• Mary Harper's Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War, and Hope in a Shattered State (partial summary—also check out her great blog)
• Hartley's The Zanzibar Chest
• Herbst's States and Power in Africa
• Iliffe's Africans: The History of a Continent (discussion)
• Iliffe's Africans: The History of a Continent (extensive notes)
• Nugent's Africa Since Independence (partial)
• O'Kane and Hepner's Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development: Eritrea in the Twenty-First Century (brief)

Articles & Thematic Notes

• Clientelist State-Society Relations (Barkan, Fatton, Pitcher, et al.)
• Democratization in Africa (Ottaway, Joseph, Bratton, and van de Walle)
• Elections as Vehicles for Change (Cheeseman)
• Ethnic Politics (Roessler, Eifert, and LeVan)
• Generational Politics (Toungara, Kagwanja, Abbink)
• Judicial Systems (Akech, Von Doepp, Suberu)
• Legislatures (Prempeh, Barkan, Lindberg)
• Mauritius: A Case Study (Arvind Subramanian)
• Patrimonialism in Africa (Theobald, Bach, Pitcher, and Moran)
• Political Parties (Rakner, van de Walle, Resnick, Bleck)
• Rural Majority (Hyden, Jayne, MacLean)

Papers

• British and French Colonial Legacies in West Africa (average grade)
• Copts in Egypt: A Wedding Feast for Copts and Muslims
• Debate Arguing That Counter-Piracy HAS Been Effective in the Horn of Africa
• The Guilt of the Silent: An Analysis of Raoul Peck's Sometimes in April (poem)
• Libyan Coalition/Intervention
• Sometimes in April (review and analysis)
• Sometimes in April / Rwandan Genocide Analysis Paper Endnotes
• The Unexpected Pattern of Democratization in Africa

Event Notes

• 2010 Maritime Safety and Security (MSS) Conference: "African Maritime Interests: Security and Development" (Plenary Session 1)
• MSS Conference Speech by Ambassador Huddleston
• MSS Conference Speech by Ambassador Carson
• MSS Conference Keynote Speech by AU Deputy Chairman Dr. Mwencha
• Senator Isakson's Speech at SAIS (31 March 2011)

International Relations

Books & Course

• Entire IR Course Notes
• Essays in Conflict After the Cold War
• Chapter 12 Notes from Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Challenges of Our Time
• Selected Chapters of Force and Statecraft by Lauren, Craig, and George
• Notes (first four chapters) on Nye's Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (7th Edition)
• Power and Levels of Analysis

Articles

• Mearsheimer and Walt's "An Unnecessary War"
• Walt's "The Relationship Between Theory and Policy in International Relations" (2005)
• Walt's "International Relations: One World, Many Theories" (1998)

Papers & Short Essays

• Paragraph on Libya as a Case Study in Developing a Democracy from Scratch
• Paragraph on Twitter as the New Nuke and the Convergence with Technology
• Paragraph on the Dangers of Half-Hearted IR Policy Implementation
• Considerations for a U.S. Response to an Alien Communication Signal
• Concert of Democracies as the Answer to the Impotent UN
• Relevance of the UN Charter Today
• Research Question on Imazighen-State Relations in Morocco and Algeria

Writing

• How to Do a Literature Review
• In Praise of RefWorks—The Best Reference Management Tool?
• How to Write an A+ Paper in Grad School
• Presentation on the Importance of Revision
• My Checklist for Writing Well: Essential Edits Before You Turn in That Paper

Ethnic Conflict

Notes

• Muller's "The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism" (2008)
• Walker Connor's "From a Theory of Relative Economic Deprivation Towards a Theory of Relative Political Deprivation" (2001)
• Harff's "No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust?" and Genocide in Syria

Papers

• More Than Words: An Argument for Primordialism

Economics

• Kraska's The Freakonomics of Maritime Piracy
• Zachary's "Haves and Have-Nots—African Style" (Notes Link)
• Gill and Deichmann's "Economic Geography of Regional Integration" (Notes Link)
• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's "Nigeria's Shot at Redemption" (Dec 2008) (Notes Link)
• Kapstein's "Africa's Capitalist Revolution" (July 2009)
• Gupta's "Making Remittances Work" (2007) (Notes Link)

Islam

Notes

• Islamic Fundamentalism Notes
• The Origins of Islam
• Islamism in Morocco by Malika Zeghal
• The First Islamist Republic by Abdullahi A. Gallab (Sudan)
• Imazighen-State Relations in Morocco and Algeria (My research question 1-pager)

Papers

• At the Service of Islam: The Islamists' Role in Morocco's Democratic Islamic Monarchy
• 50 Shades of Islam: The Rise of Morocco's Democratic Islamarchy
• Copts in Egypt: A Wedding Feast for Copts and Muslims
• The Myth of Monolithic Islamism (Iran, Egypt, and Pakistan Comparison)

Comparative Politics

Notes

• Lichbach's "Social Theory and Comparative Politics (CP)"

Papers

• "Why do some scholars view popular sovereignty as the 'dark side' of democracy? Are they correct?" (Unlinked in original post)

Vietnam / Decision-Making

• Paper on the Gulf of Tonkin: "The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: A Response to Which Campaign?"