Assignment Topic
The United States is unequivocally a “great power”; even more, the United States is a hegemonic power. From a system-level perspective, understanding the position of the United States in the international systems is critical to understanding the foreign policy of the country. With this in mind, consider the issue of US-Saudi relations during the entire postwar period, but especially after September 11, 2001.

In about one page (500~600 words), provide a very concise and accurate explanation of this relationship from both a system-level realist and Marxist perspective. In the remainder of your essay, evaluate and assess the two perspectives. What are their relative strengths and weaknesses? Which, to your mind, provides the better overall explanation? Provide a clear, well-supported justification for your position. This part of your essay should also be approximately 500~600 words.

Because of the added complexity of this assignment, your response may be as long a three, single-spaced pages. You must include a short introduction and conclusion (perhaps 300-500 words total).

As usual, your essay must be neatly typed, using 1” margins (top and bottom) and 1~1.25” margins (left and right). Use a standard 12 point font (Times or Times New Roman). Do not use extra large (e.g., Helvetica, Arial) or condensed fonts (e.g., Arial narrow). Your essay must be carefully proofread and reasonably free of errors. Sloppy, error-filled papers will be severely penalized. Failure to fulfill any of these requirements will result in subtantial automatic deductions.

Due Date and Time: Wednesday, March 7th at the beginning of the class period. Late assignments, including those turned in after the class has begun, will be subject to a (severe) penalty.

This MS Word document contains my general comments and a student model (with additional comments) on mini-essay no. 1. Students who are planning to do a rewrite, in particular, must review this file before turning in their rewrites. Failure to do so will likely result in minimal or no improvement. All students, however, will benefit from reviewing the comments so that you can get a clearer idea about the expectations and requirements of the mini-essay assignments.

The video file was not automatically transferred with the MS word file, so I am including the video as a separate download here (NOTE: This is a large file, about 11 gb, so don't attempt to download on a dial-up connection) • To download, click here

In the first assignment, you were asked to explain the American decision to invade Iraq using individual-level factors. This required you, in part, to focus on explaining how cognitive processes among key decision-makers may have materially impacted the choices and policies that pursued. The task for this assignment is similar, but instead of focusing on individual-level factors, you must focus on state-level factors. Specifically, answer the following question: Can the American decision to invade and occupy Iraq be explained using state-level factors?

For the purposes of this assignment you are not required to incorporate a full-range of state-level factors; however, you are required to focus on those you consider most important. This also means that you must justify (in writing) your choices.

The full assignment was handed out in class.