Week 10 Blog

Hello once again to my interested fans and readers. This week saw me manage to complete and upload the final version of my paper to the College Board, thus completing a major chapter in my work for this project. It also saw me begin to greatly intensify the work that I had been putting into completing both the script for my presentation and the actual presentation itself. The completion of my presentation this week meant it would be a busy week of studying the script to achieve that goal. I also began to specifically look back at the opening slides of my presentation to ensure that they matched changes that I made to my final paper, and that these slides were refined enough to keep the audience interested. With the deadline for my presentation fast approaching, it has been a busy week for my project.

The first step that I took this week was to sit down and comprehensively read through my completed paper. I looked for any and all personally identifying information that I could, checking for my name, the name of my teachers and consultants, and for any information on the school itself. I also used this opportunity to do a final run-through of my paper for any grammar or syntax mistakes, as these would greatly detract from the credibility of the paper and the research that I had spent so much time trying to complete. To finish the paper off, I added in sub-headings to each of the major sections that it was composed of to ensure that the readers were in no way confused or unsure of the paper’s organization. With all this completed, I uploaded the paper to the College Board website and began my full-focus work on the presentation.

I first focused on the actual script for the presentation, looking to see if what I would be saying to the audience actually matched up with the slides I had created and the flow of the paper itself. After making a few edits to it, I moved towards examining how well my initial slides matched up to the now final paper and I found that I had to make a number of changes based on the edits that I had made earlier to my literature review and other parts of my paper. Considering that my paper’s organization and flow had changed a fair amount by the time the final was complete, I went back and reorganized the presentation to better match this flow, removing unnecessary information and focusing on making each slide representative of its subject material in the paper. Also, I put more focus on reducing the number of words on each of my slides, as I realized that they were becoming fairly verbose and I was relying too much on the presentation to convey my points instead of my own speaking to explain the research to the audience.

This week saw me end a major chapter in my work for this project, and it saw me take on a different aspect with a wholly new focus and determination. My coming time will only be spent further improving and building off my current presentation.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic 

Week 9 Blog

Hello once again interested fans and readers. This week saw me practice presenting my research for the first time and then had me move on to examining the recording of my presentation and the feedback I received from the board of teachers to best improve my presentation. Also, this week saw me look to the presentations of some of my closer friends to get a better idea of the exact way to structure and organize my presentation. I learned a large amount of new information on how to better make my presentation both interesting and appealing to the audience, while still making sure that it was not to verbose or distracting to the actual points I was making. With my presentation redo set for tomorrow morning, it has been a week of intensive edits and corrections for me.

The first step I took this week was to review the video of my presentation to get a thorough understanding of where I could improve on my actual presenting ability. An immediate error that I noticed was that I had a weak memory for the script and that I needed to both edit and more thoroughly review it for my next presentation. In addition to my continuous pausing to remember the lines of my script, I also noticed that I was having problems directing my eyes towards the audience and keeping good posture. I took mental note of this and practiced reading off lines from my script while staring at something specific and standing straight to get more used to it. Another problem that I noticed in the video recording of my presentation was that I had a number of redundant points throughout the actual presentation itself. I began to remedy this by removing unnecessary bullet points, slides, and words that I felt added very little to the presentation.

Another important step that I took this week was to look at the presentations of my friends who did well on their practice runs to get a better idea of how my presentation should flow and what is should look like visually. With Malavika’s permission, I began by looking at her presentation and immediately noticed a number of excellent changes I could make to my own. The first important edit I realized I should make was to add many more photos and visually stimulating images so that the presentation itself was actually stimulating to the audience. Another change I realized I should make was to greatly reduce the word count of my slides, as I was just repeating the things I would be saying to the audience anyway. Finally, a change I realized I should make was to place my research question after my literature review, as this mimicked the structure of the paper and made it easier for the audience to understand by that point in the presentation.

Between trying to improve my presentational skills in person and trying to look at the feedback I received from the faculty, it has been a busy week of editing for me.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic 

Week 8 Blog

Hello and happy April fool’s day to my interested fans and readers. This week saw me manage to complete and upload the final version of my paper to the College Board, thus completing a major chapter in my work for this project. It also saw me begin to greatly intensify the work that I had been putting into completing both the script for my presentation and the actual presentation itself. I also began to specifically look back at the opening slides of my presentation to ensure that they matched changes that I made to my final paper, and that these slides were refined enough to keep the audience interested. With the deadline for my presentation fast approaching, it has been a busy week for my project.

The first step that I took this week was to sit down and comprehensively read through my completed paper. I looked for any and all personally identifying information that I could, checking for my name, the name of my teachers and consultants, and for any information on the school itself. I also used this opportunity to do a final run-through of my paper for any grammar or syntax mistakes, as these would greatly detract from the credibility of the paper and the research that I had spent so much time trying to complete. To finish the paper off, I added in sub-headings to each of the major sections that it was composed of to ensure that the readers were in no way confused or unsure of the paper’s organization. With all this completed, I uploaded the paper to the College Board website and began my full-focus work on the presentation.

I first focused on the actual script for the presentation, looking to see if what I would be saying to the audience actually matched up with the slides I had created and the flow of the paper itself. After making a few edits to it, I moved towards examining how well my initial slides matched up to the now final paper and I found that I had to make a number of changes based on the edits that I had made earlier to my literature review and other parts of my paper. Considering that my paper’s organization and flow had changed a fair amount by the time the final was complete, I went back and reorganized the presentation to better match this flow, removing unnecessary information and focusing on making each slide representative of its subject material in the paper. Also, I put more focus on reducing the number of words on each of my slides, as I realized that they were becoming fairly verbose and I was relying too much on the presentation to convey my points instead of my own speaking to explain the research to the audience.

This week saw me end a major chapter in my work for this project, and it saw me take on a different aspect with a wholly new focus and determination. My coming time will only be spent further improving and building off my current presentation.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic 

Week 7 Blog

Hello again interested readers. This week saw me continue my work towards editing my paper to be sure that it is ready for the College Board deadline, and this week also saw me begin to work on the meat of my project’s presentation, including the general script for what I would say during the presentation. I also began mentally preparing myself for the presentation, which entailed me reading my draft copy of the script aloud and focusing on my tone of voice, posture, eye contact, etc. to be sure that my presentation would meet the standard of excellence that the College Board expects. With all of these goals in mind, it has been a fairly busy and productive week for my project.

I began my week by looking at my own previous PowerPoint work from seminar and focusing on what strengths and weaknesses my past presentations exposed. One of the first weaknesses that I was able to note down was my tendency to be fairly verbose with the writing in my slides, making it seem more like I was simply reading information from a script rather than actually presenting it to the audience. Another trend that I noticed from my slideshows was that I was often relying on my slides to remember what specific information I had to convey at certain times. I noted that I would have to practice and more thoroughly rehearse my presentation this time around and that I would have to avoid even considering my slides an asset for myself, but rather using them only to help the audience better appreciate my own arguments, discoveries, etc. Finally, another trend that I kept track of was that I frequently would only go into as much detail as my paper would, but I have realized that for this presentation I will want to discuss more confusing sections more thoroughly so that the audience is clear on my reasoning throughout the work.

During this week, I also spent a large portion of the time working on my presentation script and on my speaking skills to make sure I would be able to provide a presentation worthy of the time and effort that I put into the project. I began by writing a general summary of each of the elements of the paper and then allotted time to each section based on its importance to the research being conducted and its difficulty of understanding for the audience. I also tried to connect the summaries into a semi-professional format and began practicing reading them aloud to myself, noting what inflection and tone to use for various points in the presentation and getting used to discussing the material in a nonchalant manner.

This week saw me enter into a new and determined focus on mastering the art of presenting. Whether it was looking back and noting the weaker points of my previous seminar presentations or just getting comfortable with presenting the information to an audience, my work was entirely directed towards making a presentation that I could be proud of.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic 

Week 6 Blog

Hello once again interested fans and readers. While my last blog had me focused on dealing with the discussion section of my paper and trying to find out where my research would fit into the academic conversation, this week had me switch my focus towards examining the different individual sections of my paper and seeing how to best transition between the different sections. I also continued to use papers similar to my own to get a better understanding for the type of organizational style that would best fit the information that I am trying to present to my readers and audience. With all this in mind, it has been a fairly calm week compared to the others.

The first step that I took this week was to examine the biggest portion of my paper: the literature review. I began by reading the lit review over by itself, taking note of the tone and general voice of this section of my paper. I noticed that for this portion of the paper I was generally very expository and a majority of the lit review was an explanation of terms or ideas relevant to the topic that I would be exploring. While this is essentially the purpose of the lit review, this tone did not continue throughout my paper, so I began to look for ways to slightly modify this tone and make this section of the paper more in line with the rest of it. One of the first measures that I took to attempt to correct this action was leaving in any explanations necessary for the audience’s understanding while still removing those that were not necessary to keep only the vital information. Another step that I took to better connect the lit review to the rest of the paper was to modify the final paragraph to lead into my methods section. This helped to provide the paper with a better flow and made it seem like the two sections were actually connected, rather than separate pieces on the same topic.

Besides my work to better transition within the paper, I also began seriously considering different methods of organization for my paper, such as when to employ sub-headings and a better implementation of footnotes. I found that while there is a consensus for the use of Chicago citation by papers in my field, there is very little agreement on specific paper organization and style, leaving the decision up to me. I found that, for the information being presented, the incorporation of footnotes for definitions in the lit review would likely decrease clutter and make the information more manageable to the audience, and I also noticed that while transitions between the sections of my paper are important, a clear indication of the beginning of a new section is also fairly important to maintaining audience clarity and retention.

This week has seen me place a very direct effort into the elements of organization and the transitional points of my paper, and I have quickly realized just how important a well-organized and clear paper is to the reader, even if the information is fairly clear or straight-forward.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic 

Week 5 Blog

Hello again followers and interested readers. As of this week I am pleased to announce that the research and result gathering portion of my project has come to an end. The entirety of my work and goals for the project as of now are to edit the existing material that I have created and to continue my research of how to analyze the results that I currently have. The majority of the work that I allotted time for was to research papers similar to my own to better understand how to discuss the results that I ended up with, but I did also take time to look back at my literature review and try to understand where my research would fit in the current academic conversation. With all this in mind, it has been a very busy week.

My first step was to begin searching for my papers similar to my own. One of the papers that I quickly found to be both similar and useful for my analysis was one entitled “Nuclear Proliferation Case Study,” in which the researchers were studying a number of radical nations that were attempting to proliferate their nuclear arsenals, including North Korea, Iran, and a few others. The focus of the study of these countries is to determine the extent of the nuclear programs of these nations and to determine how faithful the nations that signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have been. The research is similar to my own as the researchers provided ratings for each nation based on the nation’s honesty about the size and scale of its nuclear programs and its adherence to the NPT, if they did sign it. The researchers explained that one of the limitations of their results is that using a rating based system introduces an element of subjectivity to the research, meaning that this will also be a limitation to my own research. Another helpful piece of insight that this source provided me with is that an important element to my own discussion section is an evaluation of the information with present context. The researchers clearly indicate in their discussion how their research of previous data on nuclear weapons in these nations is relevant presently, and they indicate what this research means for the future of the field, an element I had previously not considered.

Besides examining this similar paper for help with my discussion section, I began to review my literature review to understand where my research best fits in the academic conversation. I presently believe that my paper would best fit into the policy discussion that Iran has been the focus of for the U.S. and many other Western nations, as my research directly evaluates the effectiveness of policy and diplomatic action previously carried out by U.S. presidents.

This week has seen me really ramp up my focus on understanding where my work fits into the academic conversation and I have also placed a larger effort on getting a feel for how to write a proper discussion section for my paper.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic

Week 4 Blog

Hello again interested readers. This week of research has seen me continue to categorically examine the relationship between the U.S. and Iran during specific presidencies, and I have also been working on researching papers similar to mine to get an idea for the correct way to present and interpret my results. I have begun to record and table my relevant results, and I will also be continuing this process until I have completed my research with the Obama administration, hopefully completing the results section of my paper. With these goals in mind, I have conducted an intensive week of work and research.

I began the week by resuming my research with the Congressional Research Service (CRS), and by actively observing Iran-U.S. relations during the time of the Bush senior administration. The first factor that immediately became apparent when I began my research with Bush was that the hostage-taking that had previously pestered Carter had made a return and was a present issue for the administration. While Iran did not get directly involved, according to a source entitled “The George H.W. Bush Administration,” Iranian allies in Lebanon continued a hostage situation for a significant period of the term. The relations during this first and only term were marked by a clear presence of frustration and rockiness due to persisting issues like this hostage-taking and more.

Another major shock to Iran-U.S. relations during this period was that Iraq had begun a very serious and coordinated invasion of Kuwait for its oil resources and wealth. Iraq’s invasion placed a very serious threat to Iranian interests and made the nation feel extremely pressured by this new military presence, eventually leading to U.S. involvement in the ending of Iraq’s occupation. A source called “The Crimes of Saddam Hussein” focused on how the implication of the Iraqi invasion provided the U.S. and Iran with grounds for peaceful, cooperative relations, and the source explains that Bush’s term in office was actually a period of relative compromise and collaboration for the two nations, at least until the end of the Iraqi occupation.

After finishing my work with the Bush senior administration, I began my research for the results section of my paper, trying to find papers that were similar to my own in terms of subject matter and organization. The first paper that I ended up examining was one that I have had since my lit review, a source titled “The Changing Political Utility of Nuclear Weapons: Nuclear Threats From 1970 to 2010,” where the author examines and records data on nuclear threats that were spoken or indicated publicly. I realized that for my own results section, I could tabulate the information I found on each president separately and then I could simply compare the results for information on the most effective strategy or diplomatic action for dealing with Iran.

This week has seen me both continue my previous work with the CRS and U.S. presidents and has seen me introduce new work with my examination of other results sections.

Regards,
Lazar Vukcevic

Week 3 Blog

Hello again fans and interested readers. This week has seen me continue my same previous focus on examining U.S. presidencies in chronological order, focusing on the two terms of the Regan administration for my analysis. Also, I have begun to examine the ways in which I can analyze and ultimately organize the results that I obtain from my research, looking at how the results that I acquire from each of my sources can be more generally applied to the duration of a presidency and how trends in Iran-U.S. relations can be tracked. With all of these goals in mind, it has been a busy week of researching and examination.

My first step this week was to begin to search the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for sources that detailed the major foreign policy decisions and Iranian policies of the Reagan administration. The first realization that I came to was that there was an immediate shift in Iran-U.S. relations when Reagan took office. One example of this shift was that the Iranian hostage crisis came to a swift end when Reagan was inaugurated. This end has been associated with Reagan’s campaign promises of a stern stance against Iranian aggression and hostage-taking, and his promise to take immediate action if the hostages were not released by the time of his inauguration.

From this example I began compiling sources that focused on Reagan’s first term in office. One source that I found on the CRS was titled “The Reagan Administration and Iran,” and this source placed a majority of its focus on how the Reagan era had some of the most direct confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. This confrontation was the direct result of a number of factors, including the pursuit of cold war interests, the Iran-Iraq war, and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. With the many conflicting foreign policy interests during his first term in office, it was no wonder that U.S.-Iran relations grew to be strained significantly.

My next step was to look specifically towards Reagan’s second term in office, and I quickly realized that this period of time was overshadowed by one major issue: the Iran-Contra affair. Examining a source from the CRS entitled “The Iran-Contra Affair,” it quickly became clear that Reagan’s actions in the affair were in an attempt to prevent the spread of communism to states in South America. This presented another shift in the Reagan administration’s stance with Iran, from stern to almost apathetic, willing to provide the Iranians with weapons to support other geo-political causes.  

From my week of work I believe I have gathered the larger political trends and stances of the Reagan administration on Iran. It is clear that there were a number of shifts in the administration’s stances on Iran, and that other global issues, such as the spread of communism and fighting the cold war, also greatly limited how much effort and funding Reagan could put towards specifically dealing with Iran. I plan to look at the state of Iran-U.S. relations under George H.W. Bush for my next week of work.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic

Week 2 Blog

Hello once again interested readers. As of this week I have placed the focus of my work on selecting the sources that I will be using to establish the relationship between the U.S. and Iran during the various presidencies from 1979 to the present. The source that I previously employed in my paper on Iran titled “Iran, Gulf Security, and U.S. Policy” was crucial in helping me to chronologically order the evolution of Iran since the revolution, and the source also served as a baseline for me to understand which presidencies I should be aware of off the bat.
I first began my work by going to the Congressional Research Service website and using the search function to look up any documents written about the presidencies I was concerned with. I began with looking for sources about the latter portion of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and then eliminating sources that did not examine policies and relations during the time period. The first source that I found to be of relevance to my paper was one titled “A "hollow army" reappraised: President Carter, defense budgets, and the politics of military readiness.” This source focused most significantly on President Carter’s military and defense policies, indicating how his budget choices and policies affected the future of the U.S. and the countries that it had to face on the global stage. While I was initially unsure on how useful this source would prove to be, it ended up providing both insight into specific military policies that Carter enacted and the global reaction to these policies, including the reaction in areas like the Middle East and specifically Iran.
Iran and the Iranian hostage crisis were not the focus of the source, however, so I then went on to examine a source entitled “The Carter Administration.” While not immediately apparent, this source places its focus on the events and policies preceding, during, and following the Iranian hostage crisis, directly attempting to categorize the causes and reason for the hostage situation. This source looked to have all of the information that I would need for this part of my research, so I quickly began to get into the specific actions and events that it mentioned as major causes of the hostage crisis. Considering the fact that the hostage crisis was a very vitriolic and negative reaction to the U.S. and its policy, I began to categorize the major Carter actions and policies as ineffective or poor at dealing with Iran.
The first major factor that the source cited as catalyzing the crisis was post-revolution Iran’s perception of the U.S. as “heavily or over-involved” in its national affairs. The second factor was Carter’s choice to provide asylum to the previous Shah of Iran for the medical treatments he sought in the U.S. Iranians perceived this as a direct betrayal and believed that the Shah should have been brought back to Iran and tried for war crimes. From this source it was clear that post-revolution Iran was no longer going to tolerate large U.S. involvement in its affairs or any U.S. interference with its national priorities, meaning that policies that did either would likely be inefficient and could even result in hostility with Iran. This week basically consisted of the conclusions that I have made about the Carter administration and I plan to look to the two terms of Ronald Reagan for my next week of work.

Regards,                                                       

Lazar Vukcevic

First Research Blog Post

Hello loyal fan and reader, my name is Lazar Vukcevic and I will be writing in this weekly blog to continuously update you on my progress in researching Iran-U.S. relations and the most effective diplomatic action for decreasing and eventually stopping Iranian nuclear proliferation. While Iran and the U.S. have been at odds for decades, it is clear that there is a way for the U.S. to succeed in stopping Iran’s nuclear proliferation, without having to endanger the lives of either Iranian or U.S. citizens. Considering the recent Iran nuclear deal, Iran-U.S. relations is an issue that has modern importance and a valuable, historical significance. The deal that was last signed between the U.S. and Iran, however, fails to address a number of issues with Iranian nuclear proliferation as it currently stands, and allows for the continued creation and research of nuclear weapons within Iranian facilities. This new deal has entirely failed to provide the necessary stipulations for Iranian nuclear proliferation to stop, and there will need to be quite a bit of revision for it to become an eventual success in Iran. The academic conversation is fairly divided and scholars in the field have proposed thousands of solutions and diplomatic actions to resolve the poor state of Iran-U.S. relations. However, no agreed upon resolution has yet to be created, leaving the political world with the time-sensitive question of what diplomacy would work best for convincing Iran to halt and eventually stop its nuclear program entirely. The issue being examined is extremely polarizing in nature, and even many of the scholars researching diplomatic solutions struggle to find a perfect way to counteract their own inherent biases. I plan to keep this paper and the research based in statistics and numerical data on relations, such as trade statistics, sanctions, and other clear pieces of evidence that display a nation’s view of another nation. The basic plan for determining which policy is most effective is to examine the diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. from the end of the Iranian revolution (1979) to the present day. While I will be unable to examine every policy and diplomatic action made during this period, I will get a general understanding for the U.S.'s stance towards Iran during each presidency from 1979 to the present and will use that understanding to determine which policy was most effective at achieving its desired effect. The administrations that have the most success with Iran (at least on paper) will then be more closely examined to determine which specific policies caused their success. Even though this method does not allow for the employment of a new type of diplomatic choice or action, it does ensure that historically effective methods of dealing with Iran can be brought back into the policy of the present. With a little hard work and tenacity, I hope that you and I can both enjoy the moment that I can present my findings to the world and at least guide the academic conversation towards a proven and effective policy for Iran.