Session Two

Elements of the Research Paper in Diplomacy and

International Relations

Temesgen A. (PhD)
 Different types of writing ups
• Journal article: Peer reviewed article done with
scientific research approaches
• Book Chapter: piece of writing of relative length, the
author has more chances of analysis, more depth and
width on the concept
• Seminar Paper: a pieces of writing up mainly for
course fulfillment
• Thesis: MA level
• Dissertation: PhD level
• Policy Brief Paper: A policy brief presents a concise
summary of information that can help readers
understand, and likely make decisions about,
government policies. (https://writingcenter.unc.edu/)

• Working Paper: an official report produced by a group of

people who are studying a particular problem or
situation, especially in order to give suggestions or
suggest improvements (Cambridge dictionary ).
 Elements/component of the research paper

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology
• Data analysis , presentation and findings
• Conclusion and recommendation
Identification of research Problem
• What are the major problems that you want to
solve?
• Is there possible ways of approaching the problem to
solve?
• How much the problem is a social concern?
• Do others noticed this problem ?
 Research topics vs. Research Title
• Framing Research Title from the topics
• Topic, regional development, regional integration,
hydro politics
E.g
Hydro Power development and Regional Integration in
the Nile Basin: the case of GERD
A good title Should:
• Tell us what is the research is all about
• Should not include more than 12 words
• Specific
• Interesting for the readers
•
 Which topic should I work with?
Important considerations before starting –
• Experience
• Competencies
• Budget
• Professional Growth and Development
• Knowledge
• Future Employment “Dreams”
• Expectations of Student and Supervisor
 Section one: Introduction
• Background (2-2 and1/2 pages)
• Statement of the Problem (up to 1 and half page)
Define the problem in a concise manner in your
own words. Don’t site other researches except
findings that showed the magnitude of the
problem

• Mistrust between riparian states

• Monopolistic character of the down stream countries
Research Objectives
• To Examine the role of GERD for regional integration in the Nile
Basin
• To Analyze the contribution of policies and agreements for smooth
relations between riparian states
• To identify the challenges and prospects of peaceful utilization of
the Nile among riparian states?
Research Questions
• What are the role of GERD for regional integration in the Nile Basin?
• Does policies and agreements contribute for smooth relations
between riparian states?
• What are the challenges and prospects of peaceful utilization of the
Nile among riparian states?
Hypothesis
• The more the development of hydropower projects; the more is
regional integration in the Nile basin
• Comprehensive discussions on policies and agreements; the greater
is peaceful utilization of the Nile.
• The more monopolistic tendency to utilize the Nile; the deeper is
conflict of interests among riparian states.
 Significance of the study

• Stakeholders (Ethiopian government, riparian states,

AU, IGAD)
• Policies
• Academics
• Theory
• Practice
 Scope/delimitation

• Thematic: the nexus between hydro power and

regional integration
• Temporal: 2010- 2021 – why you choose 2010-2021
should be justified
• Spatial: the ten riparian states or Ethiopia, Sudan and
Egypt
 Limitation
• Financial
• Time etc.
• Organizational bureaucracies
Definition of key terms
• Hydropower
• Regional integration
• Hydro dam
 Section two: Literature Review
Conceptual Review : review major concepts in your topic
 Hydropower development
 Clean Energy
 Regional Integration
 Power export/import
 Policy harmonization
 tariff regulation
 Grid Interconnection
 Conceptual Model: link dependent and independent variables.
Identify major sub constructs
Power
export/import

Independe
nt variable Grid
interconnection

Hydropower
development Regional Integration

Tariff
regulation Dependen
t Variable

Harmonized
policies
• Empirical Review: which studies done so far in your
topic
• Answering research Questions
• Major arguments on the topic
1. Hydro Dams and regional Integration
2. Policies and Agreements on the use of trans
boundary resources
3. Challenges to utilize the Nile
• Theoretical Review: which theories best explain this
topic
1. The main elements of the theory
2. Major proponents
3. Strengths of the theory
4. Weakness of the theory and Your reflation of the
theory to explain your topic
e.g
• Functionalism
• Intergovernmentalism
• Liberalism
• Comparative advantage theory
 Searching relevant literatures or
data
• Social science citation index :
https://library.maastrichtuniversity.nl/collections/databases/
ssci/
• Searching via science direct :
https://mjl.clarivate.com/search-results
• Looking literatures in different formats e.g
international political economy: books, Journal articles , PDF,
Word
Different Data Bases
1. https://afrobarometer.org/
2. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
3. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/bigdata/defa
ult.aspx
 Resources that do not open

Some tools that used for search litreatures

but not legal
• http://libgen.li/ (for books )
• https://sci-hub.se/ (for articles )

Exercise
Students will apply different search engines for
literature searches and identify which text is more
relevant for research works
 Literatures we shouldn’t use for our
research
• Literatures written for the purpose of Propagandas
• Literatures without author and date
• Websites of common use (e.g wikipedia)
• Old literatures (not advisable to use literatures older
ten 10 years)
• Message Baords: a website or web page where users
can post comments about a particular issue or topic
and reply to other users' postings.
• Newspaper, website sources (never use for litreature
review, but you can use for analysis section)
 Research Methodology
• Study Area
Coverage of your area need to be explained
• Methodology
1. Quantitative- if you play with numerical analysis
2. Qualitative- you analyze texts and opinions
3. Mixed – if you use both
• Research Design
1. Comparative research design
2. Experimental research design
3. Case study research design
 Research paradigm
• A research paradigm is “the set of common beliefs
and agreements shared between scientist about how
problems should be understood and addressed”
(Kuhn, 1970)
The three main research paradigms
 Determining Sampling

• What is your total population

• How much samples you used?
• Sampling technique
 Probability Sampling Methods

• Simple random sampling: each individual is

chosen entirely by chance and each member of
the population has an equal chance, of being
selected.
• Systematic sampling: Individuals are selected
at regular intervals from the sampling frame.
• Stratified sampling: the population is first
divided into subgroups (or strata) who all share a
similar characteristic.
• Clustered sampling: subgroups of the
population are used as the sampling unit, rather
than individuals.
 Non-Probability Sampling Methods

1. Convenience sampling: participants are

selected based on availability and
willingness to take part.
2. Quota sampling: Interviewers are given a
quota of subjects of a specified type to
attempt to recruit.
3. Judgement (or Purposive) Sampling:
judgement of the researcher when choosing
who to ask to participate.
4. Snowball sampling: investigating hard-to-
reach groups. Existing subjects are asked to
nominate further subjects known to them
 Data collection Procedures

Which techniques you use to collect data

• Interviews
• Key informant
• Focus group discussion
• Questionnaire
 Guiding Question
1. Questionnaire
• Dichotomous –yes or no, true or false
• Likert scale- used to judge the degree of a
feeling on an issue
• Multiple choice – a respondent will choose one
or more from the list
2. Open ended Questions
The questions should be designed in a way that
answers a research Question
• What are the role of GERD for regional integration in the Nile
Basin?
• Do you think GERD plays a role for regional integration?
• What are the dimensions that GERD helps for regional
Integration?
• How much the GERD satisfy the regional needs of Electric
power?
• Do you think that the GERD has other benefits than power
export ?
• Does policies and agreements contribute for smooth
relations between riparian states?
• Are there any policies and agreements that contribute for the
utilization of the Nile?
• What are the gaps of the policies and agreements ?
• What are the ways to turn conflicts to cooperation?
• What are the challenges and prospects of peaceful utilization
of the Nile among riparian states?
• Could you tell me some of the challenges on the utilization of
the Nile
• In you opinion which factors affects the use of the Nile ?
• What are the mechanisms to reduce challenges ?
 Categorizing data captured
• Fact: supported by evidence from authoritative sources.
Facts can be empirical, analytical, evaluative.
• Opinion: attitudinal statement by the interviewee
• False claim: Statement refuted/proved false by the
evidence.
• Untested claim: Vague, ambiguous, or incomplete claim.
evidence is yet unavailable.
• Assumptions: accepted as true or as certain to happen,
without proof.
• Predictions
 Data analysis Techniques
• Descriptive analysis
• Thematic analysis
• Content analysis
• Inferential Analysis
• Quantitative analysis
What tools you used
• SPSS, ATLAS ti, Excel etc..
 Presentation, discussion and
• Data Presentation
Findings
• Demographic characteristics of Participants
• Present all data you collected here
• Discussion and Findings
• Connect empirical issues with your data in line with
your research Questions

RQ.1
The GERED and regional integration in the Nile Basin
You can have subtopics as much as you need
 RQ. 2
Analyzing policies and agreements in the Nile Basin
• The 1929 agreement
• The 1959 agreement
• The CFA
• Declaration of Principles
You can have sub titles here as well

RQ.3
Understanding the challenges and prospects Utilizing
the Nile
• Political Challenges
• Historical Challenges
• Development Challenges
• Geopolitical
 Conclusion and Recommendation
• Summary
Summarize your work in one page
• The work focuses on….
• The research applied …. Methodology
• The research anchored ….theories
• The research come up with….
Conclusion

Provide your conclusion from the finds of your study.

Recommendation

Provide a concrete recommendation

Areas of further research

Indicate the new problem areas that you identified open for
other researchers
 Write your abstract at the end but put it at
first
• Topic Sentence (thesis)
• Objective
• Methodology and Methods of Data Collection
• Findings
• Recommendation
Key words
Should be written at the end of your research work
All this has to be between 250-350 Words
 Bibliography
Books
Referencing
Whitney, E., & Rolfes, S. (2011). Understanding nutrition
(12th ed.). Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
• In text citation
Water is a necessary part of every person’s diet and of all the nutrients
a body needs to function, it requires more water each day than any
other nutrient (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011).
or
Whitney and Rolfes (2011) state the body requires many nutrients to
function but highlight that water is of greater importance than any
other nutrient.
or
Water is an essential element of anyone’s diet and Whitney and Rolfes
(2011) emphasise it is more important than any other nutrient .
 Articles
• Abbett, T., Jenkins, D., & Abernethy, B. (2010). Physical
collisions and injury during professional rugby league
skills training. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport,
13(6), 578-583.
• Marshall, M., Carter, B., Rose, K., & Brotherton, A.
(2009). Living with type 1 diabetes: Perceptions of
children and their parents. Journal of Clinical Nursing,
18(12), 1703-1710. Retrieved from
http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0962-1067
Sample evaluations
 The End
Date of submission of the seminar Paper
December 30/3021