Research Paper Articles

New Zealand's current Prime Minister John Key and US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.


First-
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16749477

It's an overview of the effects of New Zealand's nuclear ban in 1984 and how the ban is viewed in 2006, 22 years later and long after the end of the Cold War. It talks about how it was seen as a step New Zealand's government was taking at the time in response to the Mutually Assured Destruction and nuclear deterrent policies that both the Soviet Union and the United States and both country's allies applied during the Cold War. It also examines how this ban shaped the view of New Zealand in the foreign politics spectrum.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2729596

This speaks of economic reform in New Zealand in 1984-85, the year the nuclear ban took place. These economic reforms were part of NZ's Parliament's push to change from what was nearly a welfare state into a more mixed and less regulated economy. This is related to the nuclear ban in how the government in NZ was beginning to completely change their policies, both economically and politically.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DiPghPNwzrwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=ANZUS&ots=N8TaTt4ogP&sig=BV_eU4kK-v0J21alA6jF5dLBYvI#v=onepage&q&f=false

This is a book about the ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United States) treaty and how the alliance between New Zealand and the US was weakened by New Zealand's ban on nuclear energy and nuclear weaponry. This looks into the foreign policies of all three countries and the crisis that followed the 1984 ban. It also looks into how New Zealand was trying to use it's ban as a deterrent to the use of nuclear warfare.


http://www.jstor.org/stable/40107239

This part of a book on international politics talks about the alliance between Australia, New Zealand, and the US in the 1950's. This lays the groundwork for the relationship between the three countries. It also provides the foundation for why New Zealand would take such an approach towards the idea of nuclear warfare.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10357717008444363

This book talks about the ANZUS treaty from the Australian perspective. It talks about how the treaty influenced Australian politics, its relationship with the US and how Australia viewed the nuclear ban in NZ. As of now, Australia remains one of the US's biggest allies and allows its Navy to make port in Australian cities and supports the US in almost every major conflict, including both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Research Paper Topics

First topic: The effects of New Zealand's banning of nuclear energy, both as a source of electricity and for military purposes. This would be specific to the act passed by New Zealand's parliament, its effects both on domestic and foreign policy, and how it shapes that country today. I am interested in this after visiting New Zealand this past summer, and seeing how they run their country without the aid of nuclear energy in both the electricity and defense industries. The argument would be that such a ban has more positive effects and should be enforced in more countries. Points included would be the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Japan (after 2011 earthquake), New Zealand investing in alternative energy sources such as geothermal, and how this affects foreign policy, specifically relations with the United States.

Second topic: Should mixed martial arts as a sport still be banned in certain states? Three states in the US ban mixed martial arts as a sport, the three being Vermont, Connecticut, and most notably, New York. Mixed martial arts is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and is becoming increasingly more mainstream in the United States. The highest professional league, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is extremely popular, and garners millions of viewers for its TV shows, spectators at events, and viewers on pay-per-view for its major events. I am interested in this because I got hooked on the sport from my younger brother, and am an avid fan of middleweight fighter, Brian Stann, pictured above. The argument would be that with sports such as professional wrestling and boxing being allowed, mixed martial arts should be too and the advantages of a state allowing mixed martial arts.

Image + Thesis

This image from the Chrysler Group’s subsidiary, Dodge, has many rhetorical appeals in its depiction of George Washington as the central figure, its appeal to patriotism with the American Revolution theme, and the irony of doing so, given the practices of Dodge in regards to the parent company and the production of the advertised Dodge Challenger.

Images for Consideration

The essay regarding Dove’s response is one that people have been calling for a long time. The whole idea, as facilitated by the media and pop culture, is that a woman will only be happy and considered beautiful if they have the features of the models that promote certain products. Dove set out to create a new precedent in which the people promoting these products weren’t the supermodel with the perfect body, but the normal person that was happy with who she was and what she looked like, whether it was skinny, heavy-set, white, dark, etc.

            The root of this issue is insecurity. A great deal of girls in modern Western Society are insecure due to the images used in mass media. This insecurity leads many girls to develop unhealthy eating habits, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence. These girls suffer as a result, and thus Dove began revamping its marketing tactics to reverse these effects. Dove is the first step that society as a whole has taken in order to truly better the lives of all people, not just women. While women are famous for being insecure, men too can be just as much, if not more insecure. Images seen in magazines such as Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ) and Esquire also promote a certain image men must imitate, with toned six-pack abs, huge arms, and a perfect, well-chiseled face. Men have pressure, just as much, if not more, to look good as women do. It’s more of an egotistical matter with men, as our egos are stroked when we think we look like the models in GQ. It is promoted by the media, for both men and women, that looking a certain way will make you happier, increase your sex appeal, and make you more accepted. This precedent doing the exact opposite: it is decreasing the self esteem of both men and women, and driving them to do unhealthy things both mentally and physically.