POSC 100 -­‐‑ Introduction to American Government -­‐‑ Paper Assignment #2

Instructor: Charles Mahoney (Charles.Mahoney@csulb.edu) California State University, Long Beach -­‐‑ Fall Semester 2014

Paper Prompt – United States Foreign Policy

How are international relations and U.S. foreign policy different from domestic politics and policy-­‐‑making? How is foreign policy in the U.S. made and how is this different from domestic politics?

Discuss the three ways in which the United States is considered a superpower.

Which of these three types of power is most important? Why? How should the U.S. use its position as the major world power to influence international relations?

Finally, the United States is the world’s only superpower. Despite facing few serious threats to its security, the U.S. spends more on national defense than all other major powers in the world combined. Money that potentially could be spent on social programs, infrastructure, and education goes towards advanced weapons systems and surveillance technology among other things. Are levels of spending on national defense excessive? Or are present levels of U.S. defense spending necessary to keep U.S. citizens safe?

Guidelines

Submission: A physical copy of the paper must be turned in at the beginning of class on Tuesday, December 8. No late papers will be accepted without prior permission.

Exceptions will be made only for instances of documented illness or documented family emergency.

Length: The total length of your paper should be no less than 3 pages and no more than 4 pages.

Format: Papers must be typed and double-­‐‑spaced. Use standard margins (“normal” margin setting in MS Word) and a common 12 point font (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.). Papers that do not use standard margins or a widely used 12-­‐‑point font will be penalized.

Title Page: All papers must have a title page with the student’s name and e-­‐‑mail.

Citations: If you quote an author directly, you must use quotation marks around their words and footnote the quotation (including the page number). Do not use block quotes (long quotations) in your paper.

Style and Grammar: Make sure to edit your paper for spelling, grammar, and style.

Try and finish a day or two in advance so you can reread and edit your paper.