Comparative Politics Essay and Animal Behavior Exam

I have finished one of my essays this afternoon before our run, and am here at the library printing it. It is on defining and predicting civil wars. My basic argument, which isn't really all that creative admiteddly, is that the Lebanese and Algerian civil wars were not predicted by the prevailing models. Various factors came into play that were not considered by Fearon or Collier & Hoeffler, such as the importance of group loyalties in Lebanon. It's also interesting to note that both Lebanon and Algeria were relatively high income countries, and the violence took place in their urban centers, both considerations that would go against the normal predictive models. I wish I could have come up with a more interesting thesis, but I have to work on another, longer paper for my Culture of Modernity in the Middle East class, so I don't really have time to rethink everything. Also, adding Algeria was kind of a last minute thing, and I'm afraid it's not as well integrated as it could be. Still, it's better than my last paper, which got me a B or B+ (don't remember), so this should go well.

I also had my Animal Behavior exam this morning. Went pretty well. Some of the mating system questions were a bit vague, and I kind of fudged them, but I think I'm in high A- or A territory, so I'm not too worried. I also got my ethogram (behavioral study) on Dwarf Mongooses at the zoo back. 99 out of 100. Lost a point on a minor definitional thing. That's worth more than the exam, so I think I'm in good shape for that class.