Posted: September 13th, 2017

US Foreign Policy Counter terrorism

US Foreign Policy Counter terrorism

Order Description

Prompt

Imagine that ISIS launches a series of terrorist attacks against American embassies in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and Libya.  In these attacks, hundreds are killed, including American civilians, soldiers, and personnel from the State Department. The President plans to secure authorization from Congress for a new war against ISIS and order a ground offensive with over 100,000 troops in both Iraq and Syria. The goals of this campaign include the destruction of the military of ISIS, the reclamation of lost territory in Iraq from ISIS to strengthen the current Iraqi government, and the toppling of President Assad in Syria to end the civil war and install a new regime capable of preventing Syrian territory from becoming a sanctuary for terrorists in the future.
Can this plan for American military intervention against ISIS be justified on moral grounds? If so, how? If not, why not? In your essay, you should apply TWO of the principles of Just War theory (jus ad bellum, jus in bello, jus post bellum) and at least TWO of the five ethical frameworks from lecture and readings (utilitarian, common good, virtue, rights, fairness) to describe and defend your position on the President’s plan for military intervention against ISIS.

Directions
To be eligible for full credit on this assignment, you are only expected to draw on information covered in class, such as assigned readings, lectures/debates/interviews, and in-class videos; however, you may also bring outside sources into your essay so long as they are credible academic sources. This means articles from academic journals. You can also use news stories from reliable news sources (like The New York Times, CNN, or The Wall Street Journal) to reference past events. Note that this does not include online blogs or webpages such as Vice or Wikipedia.

You should defend your position on the topic you have selected using the ethical concepts that have been presented in your readings and during class discussions. As a reminder, when using the ethical frameworks, you should consider the following five questions and address the questions that are most relevant to your topic:
•    Utilitarian: What benefits and what harms will each course of action produce, and which alternative will lead to the best overall consequences?
•    Rights: What moral rights do the affected parties have, and which course of action best respects those rights?
•    Fairness: Which course of action treats everyone the same, except where there is a morally justifiable reason not to, and does not show favoritism or discrimination?
•    Common good: Which course of action advances the common good?
•    Virtue: Which course of action develops moral virtues?
We highly recommend you use (and cite) this website for further information and clarification regarding the ethical frameworks: (http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v7n1/thinking.html).

Your essay should include the following components:
•    Defense of your position: you should take a position, present detailed, accurate and relevant information on your issue, and make clear the ethical reasoning you used to reach that position.
•    Discussion of counterarguments: you should engage thoroughly with possible arguments against the stance you have taken. Make sure to briefly explain why these counterarguments are unconvincing or do not hold up to scrutiny.  Acknowledging that a counterargument exists is only a first step; be sure to identify its weaknesses as well.
•    Application of ethical reasoning: you should use appropriate ethical lenses to examine the complexity of the issue you have chosen. It is important that you select lenses that are relevant to the issue, and that you apply them in ways that help build a strong ethical position.
•    Organization: your paper should be easy for readers to follow and logically ordered with an introduction, thesis statement, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion.
o    MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A THESIS STATEMENT.  UNDERLINE YOUR THESIS STATEMENT. This assignment is about making choices in how clearly you articulate your argument.  DO NOT run away from this choice.  There is no right or wrong answer here.  You are being graded as to how well you construct and defend an argument.
o    Be as concise as possible in your sentence structure.  Avoid wasteful words and phrases.  You have a limited number of words to illustrate your claims so get to the point quickly and efficiently.
o    Make sure every paragraph has a topic sentence.
o    Make sure there are smooth transitions between the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next.
•    Mechanics: your paper should be well-formatted, demonstrate a firm command of the English language, and contain few, if any, spelling or grammar mistakes.
?    Rewrite run-on sentences.
?    Make sure every sentence has a subject.
?    Try to minimize passive tense.  When you fall back into passive tense, it often indicates uncertainty or lack of confidence in your argument.
?    Proofread your essay by reading it aloud.  If a sentence does not make sense, change it.
?    Reread these directions after the first time you have proofread your essay.  And then proofread it again.

Formatting Guidelines
•    1,000 to 1,250 words (excluding citations and the works cited page)
•    You must cite any readings or class materials that you reference using Chicago Style citations.
•    Typed, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman, 1-inch margins
•    Saved as a Word document (.doc, .docx) or .rtf file. Other file formats will not be accepted. Take this requirement i