{"id":14467,"date":"2023-04-15T17:33:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T17:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/questions\/political-violence-territory-is-highly-divisible-and-yet-perhaps-the-most-common-good-stake-over-which-states-go-to-war-explain-why-states-often-fail-to-reach-peaceful-solutions-bargains-to-competi\/"},"modified":"2023-04-15T17:33:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T17:33:28","slug":"political-violence-territory-is-highly-divisible-and-yet-perhaps-the-most-common-good-stake-over-which-states-go-to-war-explain-why-states-often-fail-to-reach-peaceful-solutions-bargains-to-competi","status":"publish","type":"questions","link":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/questions\/political-violence-territory-is-highly-divisible-and-yet-perhaps-the-most-common-good-stake-over-which-states-go-to-war-explain-why-states-often-fail-to-reach-peaceful-solutions-bargains-to-competi\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Violence – Territory is highly divisible and yet perhaps the most common good\/stake over which states go to war. Explain why states often fail to reach peaceful solutions\/bargains to competing territorial claims."},"content":{"rendered":"

Essay Question: Territory is highly divisible and yet perhaps the most common good\/stake over which states go to war. Explain why states often fail to reach peaceful solutions\/bargains to competing territoral claims.<\/span><\/p>\n


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Essay Advice:
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– Interpretation of question
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I intentionally wrote the essay questions in a way that\u2019s open to interpretation. There is no
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\u201cright\u201d way to interpret any of the questions. Ultimately, what I care about is that you write a
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good\/interesting\/creative essay given the interpretation you go with for a particular question.
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– Structure of essay and content covered
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Try not to cover too much content in the essay. Focus on what you think are the most important
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policies in avoiding and ending civil conflict\/war. The essay should be focused, and often the
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easiest way of doing that is to anchor the discussion to a key concept, idea, etc.
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– Literature review
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Sometimes less is more, and I would encourage you to only cite literature that is highly
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relevant\/pertinent to a point that you\u2019re trying to make. Don\u2019t cite literature for the sake of it
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(that\u2019s distracting and produces a fractured essay). I never penalize students for not
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citing\/discussing a particular study, unless it\u2019s a seminal one without which we can\u2019t really
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understand the topic. Also, whenever reviewing literature, it\u2019s
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best not to do so in isolation of other literature, i.e., don\u2019t structure the essay so that one
\n<\/span><\/div>\n
paragraph reviews article X, the next paragraph article Y, the next Z, etc. Instead, in discussing
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literature, try to cover how one study (or set of studies) \u201cspeaks\u201d to another or how to synthesize
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multiple works. Finally, I always enjoy reading essays that critique various work, i.e., find faults
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with it on theoretical and\/or empirical grounds. So, you\u2019re certainly free to engage in as much
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critiquing of work as you\u2019d like
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Case studies
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You are certainly free to incorporate case studies into your essay, but make sure they\u2019re well
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integrated into the discussion. You might base the entire essay on a case study, where you
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address how the more abstract\/theoretical literature we\u2019ve covered in the module speaks to the
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details of the case (or how the case can help us better understand the theory). You can also cite
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multiple cases, but again, be sure to integrate those cases into the discussion in a thoughtful way.
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What I don\u2019t like is when brief, fleeting mentions of various cases are made in an essay, i.e.,
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something like \u201cAnd this is what happened in country X\u201d (with not real elaboration).
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Introduction
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The introduction should ideally lay out the structure of the essay. In other words, I should have a
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very good idea of how the rest of the essay will proceed from reading the introduction. That
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doesn\u2019t mean you need go into great depth in the introduction, but instead lay out a brief
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summary of what you\u2019ll be presenting\/arguing in the essay. After reading the introduction, there
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should be no big \u201csurprises\u201d as I proceed through the essay, i.e., you start to make a major
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point\/argument that the reader wouldn\u2019t anticipate from reading the introduction.
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Conclusion
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A conclusion that simply summarizes what you\u2019ve already presented in the essay is \u201cwasted\u201d
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space. Alternatively, try to make the conclusion a bit more creative and interesting. Typically,
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you can do this in one of two ways (although I\u2019m sure there are other approaches that are just as
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effective):
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1) Briefly discuss the policy implications of what you\u2019ve presented in the essay. In other
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words, how can the content\/argument of the essay help inform domestic\/international
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policymakers if they\u2019re interested in averting conflict, ensuring an enduring peace, etc.
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(or whatever outcome the essay addresses).
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2) Briefly discuss what you think are potential avenues for future research. Meaning, we
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already know quite a bit about the topic, but certainly not everything we would like to or
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should know. Based on your essay, what are the potential
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extensions\/questions\/topics\/puzzles that future research should address<\/span><\/div>\n

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Readings: <\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 Brochmann, Marit, Jan Ketil R\u00f8d, and Nils Petter Gleditsch. 2012. \u201cInternational Borders and Conflict Revisited.\u201d Conflict Management and Peace Science 29(2): 170\u2013194.
\n<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u2022 Carter, David B. and H. E. Goemans. 2011. \u201cThe Making of the Territorial Order: New <\/span>Borders and the Emergence of Interstate Conflict.\u201d International Organization 65(2): <\/span>275\u2013309.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u2022 Gibler, Douglas M. and Alex Braithwaite. 2013. \u201cDangerous Neighbours, Regional Territorial Conflict and the Democratic Peace.\u201d British Journal of Political Science 43(4): <\/span>877\u2013887.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 Starr, Harvey and G. Dale Thomas. 2005. \u201cThe Nature of Borders and International <\/span>Conflict: Revisiting Hypotheses on Territory.\u201d International Studies Quarterly 49(1): <\/span>123\u2013139<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Reed, William, David H. Clark, Timothy Nordstrom, and Wonjae Hwang. 2008. \u201cWar,\n<\/div>\n
Power, and Bargaining.\u201d Journal of Politics 70(4): 1203\u20131216.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Schultz, Kenneth A. 2015. \u201cBorders, Conflict, and Trade.\u201d Annual Review of Political\n<\/div>\n
Science 18(1): 125\u2013145.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

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\n<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essay Question: Territory is highly divisible and yet perhaps the most common good\/stake over which states go to war. Explain why states often fail to reach peaceful solutions\/bargains to competing territoral claims. Essay Advice: – Interpretation of question I intentionally wrote the essay questions in a way that\u2019s open to interpretation. There is no \u201cright\u201d way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"disciplines":[762],"paper_types":[],"tagged":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/14467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/questions"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/14467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=14467"},{"taxonomy":"paper_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper_types?post=14467"},{"taxonomy":"tagged","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodacademic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tagged?post=14467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}