http://i.imgur.com/VmBtU.gif

MTF transexuals. In the locker room.

I wrote mine on future water shortages in the American southwest. Whatever you write about, make sure the scope of the topic isn't too broad.

Belay that Thucy. I want you to write on all that stuff. Shoot for the stars. Tell the world about how sub-Saharan Africa arranges food security by military inventions and changing the climate. Do it, and don't ever look back once you started it.

lol.

yeah i'm definitely going to focus it to a single country at least, and hopefully just one or two of the issues above

How about Nigeria? Increasing desertification in the north and its potential to increase ethnic and/or religious conflict, which is already at fever pitch? Include a bit about oil and multinationals as well? Maybe also something on the history of the conflict. Could easily go to a masters and PhD after that I think.

Write about pyramids and shit

Postnatal abortion and all its benefits.

That's a good topic, but it's fairly dry. Or should I say, there's plenty of research on that.

I really want to narrow it down to something specific, like changing diets.

There's plenty to talk about there, the role of nutrition NGOs, cultural sensitivity, worldwide economics, history of the columbian exchange, nutrition and agriculture, and climate change, and yet its a neat little concise topic that isn't much researched.

So if I did it for one country or sub-region I think it would be good.

Or is that a bad idea? That's just something I thought of today.

Have you considered not writing a senior thesis and enjoying your last semester in college? A political science degree is worth diddly-squat with or without a thesis. All it's really good for is getting a good GPA for law school or working in DC, and getting into the Beltway world is really hard unless you've already interned. I say make the most of these twilight months rather than slave over something that ultimately does little good. I'm glad I did.

it's required bro

You're majoring in Political Science? Do you intend to eat? Own a house?

Seriously, as a PoliSci grad, I have to recommend staying in school and getting a degree in Accounting. Or studying to be a welder, electrician, or plumber.

international relations, but it's about the same.

don't worry about me you guys, haha jesus. i took this major knowing i'll never make more than 30k

By the by, my thesis was on the correlation between religious belief and political attitudes.

Well, there's always the State Department. I have a friend in the foreign service who just completed a tour in Turkmenistan, and is now in Vienna. Has a hot Russian wife, too. You speak a foreign language?

It's my last semester of college, man. Trust me, I have explored all possible career avenues. I'm not worried.

On that note I will be taking the FSOT soon lol

@Thucy

I'd recommend you pick a broad topic of interest and then do some preliminary reading. Something will pop out as an interesting topic and you'll have a good sense of if too much/too little work has already been done. If you pick too specific of a topic to begin with, you may fall down a rabbit hole.

I would think something about Water would be interesting--water supply control, access, etc. Seems to me that water is going to be important, especially with things like Turkey's control of the Upper Euphrates, or with the Nile River, or in Central Asia.

Ugh, required? How horrible. Hopefully it's not too different from the standard 20 page final paper. Good luck on the FSOT, though. Golden handcuffs are still golden.

There's always money in the banana stand.

A few tweaks and you can change that major to international business and earn millions lol

But in seriousness, let me see if I can help you brainstorm. These are obviously gonna be topics that interest me (within the parameters you gave) so they may or may not be up your alley.

I'd be interested to know whether a growing water/food shortage in the Maghreb has led to an increased radicalization of the population. The line of thinking is less water -> poor harvests -> poverty and hunger -> increased radicalization. You could pick Niger, Chad, Mali, Ethiopia....there are plenty of countries to make this case specific. The only thing I'd be worried about is the robustness of the effects, given the world is undergoing an overall increase in radicalization.

Another thing to look into might be to take a successful nation - say Ghana - and find if its increase in agricultural production has benefited society - ie. has the extra food gone to Ghanaians?

Or maybe take a look at Nigeria. Its projected to be one of the top 5 most populous countries in the world by 2050. Will it be able to feed its people? If not, what can be done to ease this?

1. Post thread topic containing topic.
2. Copy obiwan's posts
3. Finished

^^ ROFL

You think PoliSci is a useless degree? I wrote my thesis on representations of Judaism in Medieval English cycle drama. So... my best advice is to never, ever, ever take advice from an English major.

Sounds fascinating, hecks.

Only fascinating enough to get me a C+. Which may have been better than it deserved.

i suggest u limit ur topic to one or two effects (except u are really good in statistics!) and make a cross country comparison. esp. if u r interested in links between nutrition/food security and conflict. on the other hand, and this could be a real employment boost, u could assess the effectiveness of certain forms development aid on food availability/nutrition. data on the subject is widely available through FAO, World Bank, UNCTAD, OECD and some NGOs. Also, u can easily leave out exhausting discussions on IRT and focus instead on relatively sparse models of either comparative politics (financial aid -> responsibilties/corruption -> nutrition <- capability aid) or IPE theories. And if u don't know much of statistics, this should be easily made amenable to simple MV-regressions or ignorance based logic models. It always looks good and gives the feeling of having found smth out :)

Hey Thucy, we at the Great Debate want some judge remarks. I hear you're looking for a thesis. Maybe we can help each other out. You turn in our work, then post the comments your professors give you. Win win!