This is another sample of research proposal for International Relation Major.

Even the author directly

mention about Japan, the student who wishes to apply for other countries' university still be able to
apply this idea to the country that they wish to apply to.

Considering your desired study field, how would you utilize your knowledge, skills and experiences
that you obtain in Japan on your return home to contribute to the development of Cambodia?
Describe in 400-500 words.
In this coming November 14, the Royal Government of Cambodia, which is the daughter of the first
Japanese-lead United Nation peace mission, will host the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian
(ASEAN) in the heart of her capital, Phnom Penh. This summit will witness Cambodia commitment to
joint the world economy after decades of destruction and isolation. Joining the world, however, is not a
free lunch. Cambodia has to pay for the price and face many challenges; and the challenges are
increasing aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis. The cost of Asian Financial Crisis is severed than o-
ne could think about. Therefore, it is necessary for Cambodia to strengthen the human resources that
are compatible in dealing with good governance in finance and banking sector, which are the main
roots of Asian Financial Crisis.
In Cambodia, lady accounts for 52 percent of total population. Even Cambodian ladies public debate
participation rate is low, Cambodian ladies are widely accepted by the society as the most peaceful and
careful thinking group. Therefore, ladies are increasingly encouraged either by government or
nongovernmental organization (NGO) to participate in social problem debate as well as to save
Cambodia face from too large gender gap in employment.
In Cambodia, NGO is the most active and independent institution to advise and monitor government
policy. Recently, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank demand government for better
cooperation with NGO and private sector during designing and developing a policy. Therefore, upon
my graduation from a famous university in Japan, I hope I will be highly considered in a leadership
position at international or local NGO, which needs skilled, competent and active participants. This
achievement will encourage other Cambodian ladies to participate and play more constructive role in
good governance and financial institution development.
In addition to above contribution, I will also contribute the basic knowledge that every International
Relation students should know, peaceful conflict-resolution and preventive diplomacy, to my people.
Cambodia was too busy with going to war and prefer the use of force in settling the problem in the
past, for example the civil war and border dispute with Vietnam in 1977. Cambodia was one time used
to discriminate the Vietnamese minority, too. Peace and political stability is the fundamental for
economic development; then peaceful solution, peaceful neighbor, and multi-ethnic unity are very
important for Cambodia.
Kyoto used to be a heart of Japanese capital 1, 500 yeas ago. Somehow it might share similarity to
Angkor civilization. So, by doing research at Retsumeikan University I hope I will not only can
strengthen my Japanese language skill but also learn about Japan’s business culture, Japanese people
kindness, culture and traditional. Then, I will inherit this knowledge to younger generation who will
come to study in Japan or want to do business with Japanese in the future. As a result, Japan and
Cambodia will open new era for their relation and cooperation.
I wish my contribution eventually will lead to a realization of my belief that “history has been cruel for
Cambodians, but there is no reason why the future should be too!” This belief will be true if more and
more Cambodian people understand the reciprocal policy impact in this messy world by giving them
more opportunity to learn from other peaceful mind countries like Japan.
RESEARCH PLAN
Topic: “What can Cambodia do to strengthen her financial and banking sector without
deteriorating her own economic condition as well as international norm?”
Overview
To most Cambodian people, the study of International Relation means the study of diplomacy and
might end up as a diplomat. I used to share the same idea a few years a go until I met one of my
English teacher at Australian Center for Education whom graduated from Australian National
University and majored in International Relation but end up as an English teacher. Actually,
International Relation covers more than what ordinary people expect. It not only studies about the
international politics but also economics, social, health, global communication and so on. Global
integration, which Cambodia commits to follow, is also part of international relation topic. Cambodia,
now, is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN); and now under process of
becoming Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as well as World Trade Organization (WTO).
It is easy for people to talk about globalization but not as easy to actualize. Many governments face the
challenge of this process, especially after the Asian Financial Crisis. To deal with this matter each
government needs qualified intellectual to examine the world tendency and to set the right respond to
the world crisis i.e. financial crisis. This poses new strategic challenges for the whole world, but
particularly for small and less developed countries like Cambodia that has just emerged from
destruction and isolation.
Research Objective
As most people believe, the Asian Financial Crisis was the result of weak financial institution and less
cooperation among individual country in dealing with economic difficulty. Many problems lead to the
weakness in financial institutions, especially banks. Those problems are: the ignorance of good
corporate governance, lack of transparency in loan and too much government insurance and
intervention. Those problems have induced the financial institutions to loosen the loan, bookkeeping
standard, risk assessment, and project profitability evaluation. As a result, financial institutions end up
as infant institutions. They cannot face with the unexpected change in government policies, capital
mobility, and contagion from other countries crisis; which is natural when a country more integrated
into global market. They are vulnerable to the speculators who look around the clock to exploit profit.
Too strong nationalism ideology, which is a result of longtime economic growth, insisted the crisis-hit
governments ignore the important of international cooperation and assistant, which exacerbate the
crisis into a deep trap.
After Asian Financial Crisis, however, the world witnessed the important of inter-relation in economic
activities. Asian Financial Crisis was also a strong message to any country that wishes to pursue
globalization to be ready in reforming their financial institutions’ health and must acknowledge the
important of global cooperation otherwise that country will be vulnerable to the future global crisis.
That message is also a clear message to Cambodia that already committed herself to the full integration
in global market soon. Therefore, Cambodian people nationwide must understand this challenge; and
ready to joint with the government in adjusting or designing new policies to cope with the threads.
With this context, I wish to apply for “Global Governance Program” at the Graduate School of
International Relation, Retsumeikan University because this program will enable me to study about
good governance on unstable global market as well as the international relation activities under
international norm concept. “What can Cambodia do to strengthen her financial and banking sector
without deteriorating her own economic condition as well as international norm?” will be the topic that
I have in mind for my thesis theme if I am accepted by Retsumeikan University for this coming
academic year 2003.
Research Methodology
To pursue this research, firstly I have to find out all primary data that is related to Cambodia economic
trend, development plan, foreign exchange policies, the number of domestic and international banks
operated in Cambodia, the level of confidence in financial institutions, entrepreneur skilled accounting
rules; regulations; laws and policies that are governed the commercial banks’ and financial institutions’
transaction, and so on. These information sources will basically base on the data from the National
Bank of Cambodia, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Economy and Finance, government bulletins, and
the interviews with government officials; experts; investors; bank operators; and students.
After primary data we need the second data, which mainly base on lectures that I will take at
Retsumeikan University. The other sources include books, professors’ advices, internet, and other
countries’ experiment papers.
The lectures that would directly contribute to my research theme and I wish to take include:
International Relation, International Macroeconomic, Development Economics, Public Governance,
International Trade, International Finance, Development Finance and Banking, Corporate Governance,
International Political Economy, and International Economic Law. These lectures will offer me a great
analytical skilled in international finance problems. I will be able to select the right reform domestic
financial sector reform strategies; then link them to international norm to avoid any retaliation from
international partners or gain sympathy from international community on Cambodia reform.
In addition to above mention courses I also consider to take Globalization and Gender, Conflict-
Resolution and Preventive Diplomacy, and International Organization courses because these courses
will give me a better understanding of original focus of international relation on the international
security stability, which will assure the persisting of economic and finance growth. These mentioned
courses, however, would be revised if there is a recommendation from my future advisor professor.
The methodologies that I would like to apply on these data are qualitative and simple statistical
analysis. The qualitative analysis will focus mainly on the description of regulations, laws, historical
experiences, trends, and human rational expectation. The statistical analysis will focus on the statistic,
and confidence interval of my survey and interviews.
To date, I have approached some officials at the National Bank of Cambodia via my friends about the
possibility of getting bank regulations, and laws on commercial bank transaction. It seems there is no
objection to my request if I need it in hand before I take off Phnom Penh airport. Currently, I also try to
review my Japanese language and other important subjects that I took in my bachelor degree such as
investment management, business statistic, finance and banking and so forth. I hope these approaches
will put me in a ready position to bring back Cambodia an honorable successful study.
Research Schedule
To assure the successful of my research, I would like to design my schedule as follow:
♣ First to twelfth month is reserved for lectures, theoretical study and other secondary data
collection.
♣ Thirteenth to sixteenth month is reserved for field interview and primary data collection.
♣ Seventeenth to twenty-fourth months is designed for analysis, writing, and presenting the thesis.
The schedule is based on 2 years master study plan, exclude Japanese language study period. The
schedule itself is subject to reshuffle if I get more valuable advices from my professors.
This is just a sample. What I hope the reader get from this sample is the process of developing research
idea and the way the writer choose his/her writing strategy. There are many ways of starting. You can
choose to pretend that your know nothing about one thing that is really necessary for your future
career or you can start by attacking a common belief or theory.
By HENG Sour