This course requires the completion of a 15,000 word research thesis over two semesters, which completes the Master of Diplomacy (Advanced) award. Students must enrol twice as part-time students over consecutive semesters and research a topic of importance to diplomacy in consultation with their supervisor. The thesis will develop students' research, writing and argumentation skills on an issue of importance to them and to diplomacy as a practice and field of study. Students are invited to formulate a research question that guides their project and which is of central research interest to academics in the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy. Students should consider an intellectual question, problem or issue which can be presented in the expected academic format: for example with an Introduction that locates the question in a wider literature or debate, canvasses why it is important and outlines the argument and how it will be made methodologically and structurally. The Introduction is followed by chapters which comprise the body of the thesis and in which the theoretical and empirical evidence and counter-evidence for the argument is presented. And finally the thesis Conclusion, in which the research findings and contribution are presented and argued. Students are expected to be energetic self-starters, work independently and challenge analytical obstacles as they arise. At certain stages of the writing process, students will receive feedback on their progress from a thesis supervisor . While the supervisor will not comment on the thesis in its entirety, it is expected that students will apply any given feedback to subsequent chapters of the thesis. Two weeks prior to submission, students will have the opportunity to present their research design and findings to faculty, and receive further suggestions for improvement.