Thesis

I'm going back to university this year to upgrade my current major in political science to an honours in political science which requires doing a bachelor's thesis. I had been mulling over the idea of doing something about Islamic integration in Europe, and comparing the various immigration policies to see which has been most effective at integrating Muslims into society, but I was worried that that would be too touchy a subject for a liberal arts university.

Instead I'll be doing something about China. I'm not entirely what I'll do just yet, but I'm leaning in the direction of looking at Chinese investment in Africa and what effects it has had. I've also been considering looking at more philosophical aspects of Chinese foreign policy (I'm also doing an honours in philosophy), namely how amoral China has been in its pursuit of the resources it needs.

China's growing wealth and influence gives it a lot of power, but it seems unwilling to accept any responsibilty. Take Sudan. China has so much money invested in the Sudanese oil industry that if they gave a shit about Darfur, they could stop the genocide there in a matter of days. China's internal policies are just as robotically pragmatic. Not only do they restrict the number of children a couple can have, and often resort to forced abortions if that limit is breached, they are also one of the few remaining countries to openly practice eugenics. People of lower intelligence are forcibly sterilized.

I'll have to do some more research to find out how much this topic has been examined and whether I can come up with an original idea about the subject, but I think the area has a lot of potential.