Baglione, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science third edition, © 2016
Mellynia (2101633051) – LB66
Finding a Topic: Using Multiple Techniques to Find a Topic That Is
Interesting to Multiple Audiences
Technique
Why did you choose your major?
What are your career aspirations and why?
What are your extracurricular activities and
why do you enjoy them?
Favorite course and why?
Your Answer
I have been passionate about the socio-political
world since childhood and have been very
interested in the world of embassies and the
international system.
My career aspirations are to become part of the
embassy staff in Indonesia or the Indonesian
Embassy because in my opinion diplomacy
activities either bilaterally or multilaterally are
interesting things to do directly and combine my
hobby, traveling. So while traveling, I can also
see what has existed between Indonesia and the
various countries I have visited.
My extracurricular activity is photography,
because photography especially nature
photography makes me learn an art that is
visualized with just an image, and when I
beautify it with an adobe device or something
like that, I feel that the result of the image brings
happiness to me.
I like the Indonesian Foreign Policy course
because in my opinion foreign policy analysis is
something unique where in its determination
there are many factors, even psychological
Baglione, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science third edition, © 2016
Favorite part of course and why?
Which current events are most interesting to
you? Why?
What are your personal concerns about
politics?
What political debates or issues do you like
to read about? How, if at all, are any of these
relevant to your interests, activities, career
hopes, and concerns?
What issues have you identified as
interesting to you from searching through
various sources (newspapers, news sites,
journals of opinion, and others)?
Why are these topics interesting to you?
factors that make me see it as unique and
interesting to analyze.
I like the part in understanding models of
decision making in Foreign Policy Analysis
where I can understand the various psychological
models and factors that can influence the making
of a policy which I find unique is also interesting
to analyze.
The most interesting current events in my
opinion are President Trump and the first lady
who is currently infected with the COVID-19
virus. What I find interesting is the background
to the cause of Trump's health and the first lady
and the controversy that lies within it.
My personal concern about politics is the trade
war that occur in the political world of US and
China with various impacts and efforts, like
example de-dollarization.
I like to read about the de-dollarization efforts
that are being carried out in order to reduce the
value of the US Dollar currency as a global trade
transaction which attracted me to further analyze
it to become my concern in making my thesis in
the future.
When I searched through various sources, the
issue that was very interesting to me was the
global de-dollarization trend that was carried
out by most countries in the world to the US
currency to weaken the US dollar.
I find this topic interesting because the term de-
dollarization has actually appeared since the
Baglione, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science third edition, © 2016
Why are these topics interesting to scholars,
policymakers, and citizens? To which
concepts and theoretical or ideological
debates do they relate?
1970s but got more concerned in the last year
and being carried out by several countries around
the world. This policy also includes a sharp
reduction in US debt holdings, increasing the
global non-dollar trade community, and
increasing the value of gold against the dollar.
As I mentioned earlier, this topic becoming a hot
conversation in the political world seeing that
some countries and even international
organizations such as the G20 member states
have reduced the use of US dollars in global
trade. In my opinion, the concepts and theories
related to this debate are realism in power
transitions theory in which China as the most
dominant country and its allies are trying to
make this effort to defeat the US in the ongoing
trade war. In addition, neo-gramscianism is also
an appropriate concept in describing de-
dollarization as a counter hegemony of the US
dollar currency.
Baglione, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science third edition, © 2016

Generating Questions and Identifying Their Types

This worksheet helps you think through two topics. If you only have one, please eliminate the
last column. If you have three, then change the pay layout to landscape and add a column. Look
at the examples in the book to help you.

Candidate Topic 1

Specify the topic
Why interesting to
multiple audiences?
(answer separately for
scholars, policy makers
& citizens)
Why important to
multiple audiences?
(answer for separately
scholars, policy makers
& citizens)
The topic that I will research is the de-dollarization
efforts that have been, are being, or will be carried
out by Indonesia in cooperation with China. My
focus is also to analyze the advantages and
disadvantages for Indonesia in undertaking de-
dollarization with the US, especially in the socio-
economic and political aspects.
For scholars, this topic is very interesting to
research further regarding any background or what
has caused various countries to want to get rid of
the value of the dollar currency in global trade.
For policy makers, it’s interesting to analyze both
psychologically and in a model because every
country has a different background or the same goal
with different reasons in choosing the decision not
to depend on the US.
For citizens, this is interesting because de-
dollarization will certainly affect economic stability
which may have an impact on the social sphere.
This topic is important for scholars, policy makers,
or citizens because de-dollarization are part of the
hegemony challenge where as I mentioned earlier,
de-dollarization are part of the counter hegemony of
the US dollar.
Baglione, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science third edition, © 2016

Public policy questions What are the policy consequences of Indonesia if it

continues to carry out de-dollarization in the long
term?
Theory-advancing Why de-dollarization being developed in
questions Indonesia's trade policy through cooperation with
China?
If one question seems Why is Indonesia making de-dollarization in an
appealing, think it effort to cooperate with China?
through more. Revise
if preferred answer is in
the question.

Puzzling? Looking at the research questions, I would like to

study about the background that makes Indonesia
want to undertake de-dollarization efforts in
collaboration with China. Apart from that,
Indonesia's goals and state interests in cooperating
with China in realizing de-dollarization efforts. I
still see that there are many scholars who have not
discussed this in detail, so I will try to complete
them with topics in my research proposal.