Instructions: You must write a 3-5 page essay responding to one of the topics below. The essay must be double spaced, in 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1 inch margins. You must also have a cover page which will include your name, your student ID number, your blog screename, the number of the essay topic you are responding to, and the title of your essay. Additionally on the cover page you must also indicate which three postings you commented on in the blog. Giving the title of the posting is enough. In order to pass this class you must have done three blog postings and this essay.
For the essays we want you to make a strong argument which you will support with evidence. Your argument must be made clear in your intro paragraph. You must also support every claim you make with a reference. (For example, you can’t just say a government is repressive without having something to back you up.) You must cite an article from the reader at least once. You can also feel free to use any outside resource you please, except wikipedia. You must include a bibliography at the end of your essay.
A hardcopy of your essay is due at the beginning of the final class session, December 3rd 2007. You may turn in the essay earlier if you please.
Topics:
1. Describe the system of concessions during the Qajar period in Iran. How did this impact the 1906 Constitutional Revolution?
2. Discuss how the U.S. government both benefited from, and was eventually repudiated for, the 1953 coup d'état against Mohammad Mossadegh. Be sure to include information regarding Cold War politics and how it legitimated the intervention.
3. Describe some of the events that contributed to the culmination of the Revolution of 1979. What inspired the Revolution? What components of the Shah’s program did people oppose?
4. “It was Iran against the world” is a statement that is constantly used to describe the Iran-Iraq war. To what extent is this true? Describe the support given to both Iran and Iraq during the war. Make sure to also discuss the controversy surrounding the Iran-Contra affair.
5. Describe the powers of the Supreme Leader. How has his actions colored the presidencies of Rafsanjani, Khatami, and Ahmadinejad?
6. Make a judgment on Ahmadinejad’s tenure as the President of Iran. What have been his accomplishments and what have been his mistakes? Be sure to discuss both his domestic and foreign agendas.
7. Should Iran be allowed to continue its nuclear program? Keep in mind Iran’s domestic needs, its stated intentions, and the possible threats the program poses.
8. Discuss the American media’s current portrayal of Iran and its government. How accurate is the portrayal? What should we expect of the media? What is at stake?
9. Should Iran be an Islamic Republic? Why or why not? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this form or government versus the benefits and drawbacks of other forms of government? You may suggest alternative government styles, but you must also comment on their feasibility in the Iranian context.
10. Topic of your choice. You must have this approved by us before writing your essay. Either speak to us in class or give us an e-mail.
Feel free to talk to us about your essays. We are always here to answer your questions. Good luck!
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2 comments:
dear Amir I didnt get your mean but I like you and want more relation
If you want we can exchange links
re: ABC news Iran No Smoking Gun but Strong Evidence
When studying about WWII, the British always took the blame of appeasing Nazi Germany. Now the U.S. has made Iran sound evil like the Nazi. In this way, maybe we should pre-empt Iran before it expands and attacks us, but how right are we at the very first place by saying Iran is so so so evil that its regime, if not the whole country, deserves to be vanished? We attacked Iraq thinking that God was on our side, but later on we found that the war was falsely waged and we have been stuck in Iraq for so many years. This time, how much could we rely on the judgment of the NIE? If its report is to contain evidence against Iran, isn’t making its report public a better thing to do? And given that the national intelligence director McConnell confessed that information in their hands regarding when Iran can come out with its own nuclear weapons is incomplete. Just by looking at the map, we will immediately understand why Iran has every single reason to develop nuclear weapons. It is in between the U.S. control Afghanistan and Iraq; its neighbor Pakistan is engaged in a nuclear race with India, etc. It does not make sense that Iran would send its missiles so far as to Israel, flying over Iraq and Syria or Jordan. I think it’s time for us to get out of the Middle East, given that we haven’t really done any good in the Middle East in the past 62 years since the end of WWII.
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