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Course Assignments: France and European Integration
This page contains detailed descriptions of course assignments.
Essay Assigments
The essays written for this course should total between five and seven pages (for both combined). The first essay should be around two pages in length (double-spaced, standard margins, 12-point standard font, such as Times New Roman), and the second should be somewhere between four and six pages.
The essays described below can overlap with either (or both) your press/book review, and/or your oral presentation, or they can address another topic. However, should you choose to write on the topic(s) of your oral presentations/review in class, please keep in mind the following: while the purpose of the oral presentation and press/book reviews is in part to stimulate debate in lecture on a particular topic, the essays (particularly the longer of the two) should attempt to address a specific analytic question, and answer it to the best of the writer’s ability.
Essay 1 (two pages):
Note—due at the beginning of tutorial, on October 5, rather than the week of September 27, as originally noted on the syllabus)
Read the following position paper:
 http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf
Write an analytic interpretation of this document, taking into account its institutional authorship and status, historical context, and the institutional realities of the European Union. How do you think the French (national government/parties) would react to this document?
Essay 2:
Choose from one of the following topics related to European integration that has recently received press coverage (over the past 2-6 months):
- The Euro
- Enlargement
- EU/US relations
- Common Foreign and Security Policy
- French leadership (or not) of the EU
Gather recent media articles and/or recent EU publications, and if applicable, very recent academic journal articles which address this topic (a list of journals, sources for such articles, and specific articles is available on the course web resources guide). Briefly summarize the issue addressed, and the articles, stating, where appropriate, the author’s position or argument. Respond to the articles critically, utilizing your knowledge of the histories, problems, and development of French politics and European integration as presented in the lectures and readings. What is your policy proposal/prescription for this particular topic?
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