Course talk:POLI380SEPT2010Cutler/Survey/MiddleEast&Iraq

In relation to this topic, how should we narrow down our questions? Perception of Canadians in the Middle East? Or Canadian perception to American policy in the Middle East? The topic can be very broad if we don't narrow down the questions in some way. --NathanielBrown 00:31, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Agree! but what do you mean by "Perception of Canadians in the Middle East", we can't survey people in Middle East though. How about Canadian Perception of Future Canada-Middle East Relation? or Candian Perception of their Role in the Middle East? --MandyCheung 23:09, 02 October 2010 (UTC)

yah i agree with the question of the Canadian perception of future middle east relations. we should also ask if we should even be involved with the issue with the middle east, what i mean is if canadians actually think we should actually be involved in the affairs of the middle east or if they are actually interested in what is happening in the middle east.--DavidHoang 19:42, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

we can also ask basic questions such as if Canadians even know if we are involved in middle eastern affairs as well as ask if it is relevant for Canada to be involved in issues such as Iraq, Israel, and Iran.--DavidHoang 19:38, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

We can also narrow this topic to a specific country in the middle east. let me know what you guys think --DavidHoang 19:42, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey yes! I was wondering if Canadians really know what their gov't is doing in the Middle-Eastern Affairs! I suggest we provide the facts in the questions to inform them a bit and then ask for their opinions.

I think we can generalize all countries into the "Middle-East", but list out some countries' names in the survey (like you said, Iraq, Israel and Iran).

So, I am going to post some questions. I am not sure if we should see Afghanistan as a Middle-Eastern country, but if we do, I think Canadian role in Afghanistan is a good example for our survey. --MandyCheung 23:37, 04 October 2010 (UTC)

Those questions are pretty good. I dont think we need to include Afghanistan in the survey since another group is already doing Afghanistan. Afghanistan is situated around south central Asia anyways. --DavidHoang 03:33, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

for question 13 i dont think you have to word it as the coalition of the willing because i think people may be confused on what that is.--DavidHoang 03:39, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

I think we should add a question about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and whether Canadians think that the Palestinians are being unfairly treated or if Israel is using too much force. What do you guys think? --DavidHoang 03:39, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

I agree that we should discuss Canadian involvement in middle eastern affairs. I do not think that it should involve Iraq as its kind of lost its relevance and a lot of people may not be educated on the current status of affairs in Iraq at present. I think that we should think of three general areas:

1. Israel-Palestinian Peace: I think we should ask Canadians if the would prefer to take an approach that favors Israeli, Palestians, or a neutral position. I also think that we should ask them to identify Canada's current position in regards to whether they think Canadian foreign policy is biased towards, Israelis, Palestinians, or neither. This is important because Canada has taken a much less neutral position in favor of Israelis under the Harper administration when it comes to conflict, cultural, and economic issues.

2. Iran. This is a salient issue in international relations and is constantly featured on the news. We should ask whether or not Canadians would support a military intervention and would this opinion change if there were conclusive evidence that Iran was close to acquiring a nuclear weapon.

3.Canadian involvement in Afghanistan/Pakistan (may be considered middle east depending on your point of view) like How has Canada's perception been affected in the middle east/muslim world by its involvement in Afghanistan and whether they believe that presence of Canadian soldiers increases the likelihood that Canada will be a target of terrorist attacks because of this presence. This may be too close to the Afghanistan issue but canada's involvement in one area does have spill over effects. --DavidSardarizadeh 23:59, 5 October 2010

Looks like we have some pretty good questions. I'll add one myself soon, but we're gonna have to narrow this down into five questions though, right? I might suggest we focus our questions more unless we're looking to provide an extremely broad survey which in some ways might defeat the purpose. As it seems David was saying, perhaps we ought to just limit it to one of those three points. Since, the class already has a section that specifically deals with Canadian involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan we ought to remove questions that deal with that. I might suggest we deal more exclusively on Canadian policies on the US/Coalition of the Willing in Iraq or perhaps the role of Canada in limiting the Iranian nuclear "weapons" program. I mean we've got some good questions but we're rather all over the board, and we also don't want to steal the thunder of the Afghanistan group.--NathanielBrown 23:51, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

I liked the last question that was done #11, but it applies to Afghanistan. So I've decided to "reword" it to apply better to Iraq and the Middle East.--NathanielBrown 00:18, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

I think we should focus more on specific areas then be all over the place. i agree with Nathaniel on asking a few questions about Iraq. --DavidHoang 16:32, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

These questions look really professional! But somehow I feel like the survey looks like a test (such as #9). I think it is better to make the questions appear more friendly to the general public. --MandyCheung 22:42, 07 October 2010 (UTC)

yeah i agree with mandy some of the questions may confuse people. i think we should start to narrow down our questions as well. what do you guys think?--DavidHoang 16:37, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

The questions are looking really good for this topic but i think we're missing one key part of Canadians' attitudes towards future conflicts in the middle east. I think we can all agree that a future conflict in the middle east involving the west will feature the United States heavily. I would be interested to know, and i think it might be important to find out how Canadians view their level of autonomy from United States foreign policy in the middle east. After the political backlash of Canada's decision not to go to war in Iraq and the looming Iranian nuclear weapons issue, it would be interesting to find out if Canadians feel their government would be significantly pressured by the United States to go to war in a future conflict. This could be a build off of question 7 maybe.

If the United States were to intervene again in the middle east, to what degree would Canada's decision to participate be influenced by US political pressure? the answers could range from: total autonomy without consequence, to Canada would have no choice

we might be getting too broad with this but i think its an important part of every Canadian's attitude towards their participation in middle eastern affairs. DISCUSS! JAbrioux 21:18, 10 October 2010 (UTC)--JAbrioux 21:18, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

i think the questions need to appeal to people more because people may not know anything about our foreign policy, i just don't think that all these questions have to be so complicated. what do you guys think?--DavidHoang 23:33, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

@ davidhoang - actually you make a really good point, the average respondent might not be too informed of the issues. instead of simplifying the questions though we could go one step further and add an "i dont know" option to some of the answers. that would make the survey more accessible and we would also be measuring the number of people who are aware of the issues at hand JAbrioux 03:11, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

The questions i tried to post (14 A,B) were more directed at the general security for Western Powers in the Middle East. I was wondering if anyone thought about how the Middle East is one of the only few regions of the world where Western Powers have not really solidified a strong ally except perhaps Israel (which is a small nation that does not really provide security to the West). Although the questions were broad, I was hoping to see if people were concerned that there is a gap between the West and rising powers such as India and China in the Middle East. Without a buffer state is the West's security threatened by potentially hostile nations and is a concern to any people? HsuehYiLu(9:34PM, 10 October 2010) (UTC)

You ask a good question about allies and rising powers from developing countries and i think that countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt usually go on the side of the West especially when it comes to the US. I still believe that the West's influence still outweighs the influence of China and India. what do you guys think?--DavidHoang 17:24, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

I agree that the West still has a substantial advantage over influence in the Middle East including Pakistan that borders South Asia and the Middle East and the states you mentioned above. Although the United States has greater influence in this region at this time, the West as a whole does not appear united in the way to acheive influence in these regions. The United States is shouldering most of the burden of what they believe is the correct way in gaining regional security while other nations in the West takes the sideline. Especially with the United States current economic state and military outstrech, do you believe that if the Western nations do not unite against this 'cause' the West will lose to the rising powers in gaining regional superiority over them. This is why i posed the general question if Western security is important to people in this region. I believe China and India have made major strides while the West is becoming more and more divided in what is the correct way to maintain their dominance over the international community. And many are becoming more threatened by the idea that for the first time, the likely state to become a super power (or states) are non-european/Western nations.HsuehYiLu(11:35AM, 11 October 2010) (UTC)

i agree that the decline of western power in the region combined with the upshoot of south asian nations could potentially make the middle east a flashpoint between tomorrows superpowers. As for uniting against the 'cause' of preventing eastern influence over the region, i think the question should be whether people support western presence simply to avoid rival countries from doing so. i think the bigger issue here is whether people support such naked imperialism, under the guise of 'security', rather than how to do it. i think we're starting to get some overlap here too --JAbrioux 20:23, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

actually that leads me to post another question for us to think about. motivations for war. ie. what do you think the western motivation for war in the middle east is. answers would include 'natural resources, western security, humanitarian aid, imperialism, political restructuring' i know there are diverging views on this and it would be interesting to find out the numbers of people who have different views. maybe make it a check box option because people could well beleive there are multiple reasons for middle east intervention. how to i make a check box in HTML? if anybody knows how, edit my question. --JAbrioux 20:31, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

I like the new question posted, however, many of it seems to overlap. Natural resources for example is similar to preserving the way of Western life and/or western security. Perhaps the re-wording of western security to regional military security or even something to do with Western hegemony might work better. And maybe its just how the word is used, 'imperialism' (although it fits) seems to create a negative bias in the questioning itself. Not many are willing to admit that their country is pursuing imperialism but it is something they personally desire. If the question is somehow reworded to fit something like preserving Western ideals or culture, which might imply more of, 'spreading democracy, gender equality and all that "western idealism"' than the dominance over another state/culture would give more of an accurate response in a survey. HsuehYiLu(16:35AM, 11 October 2010) (UTC)

i agree that the categories overlap but i think the fact its a checkbox answer kind of mitigates that effect. but i agree that we should separate western security and local security. that would make it much simpler. As for 'western security' i was referring to tracking down terrorists or weapons of mass destruction. I also agree that imperialism puts a negative spin on the question. although it would be interesting to see how many people will respond with imperialism because i know its the view of several people i know. maybe change to cultural imperialism. ill make some changes, lemme know what you think. --JAbrioux 00:29, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

This is a pretty good discussion with alot of good points but if we are doing a survey that is intended to be answered by the general population, they may be confused on what cultural imperialism may imply or what or who is pursuing imperialism. We could also ask if people think that all this intervention has actually made the west any safer or actually more vulnerable.--DavidHoang 03:07, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

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Question selection and Critique.

I'm so mad. I made a long post here then it was lost somehow because I was logged off some time. I am just making a critique, I like almost all of the questions but there are a few concerns. 1,2,3 a pretty good but I think maybe we should elaborate on what an illegitimate practice is.

4) Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, promised to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2011, do you think that will enhance Canada-Middle-East relations?

its good, but we should change 'relations' to public opinion in the middle east of Canada.

5) Do you think Middle-Easterners in Canada have influence in Canada-Middle-East relations?

I like the question but middle easterners can include Israelis which depending on what we are trying to make out of it, can be considered a z-variable because Israeli interests are highly organized in Canada whereas arab/Iranian/Turkish are not nearly so.

6) Looking at the Canadian role in the Middle-East (e.g. not participating in the U.S.-Iraq war, supporting Israel in Arab-Israeli conflict, and etc.), do you think Canada has been doing a good job?

maybe we should not include Eg... in the question. Maybe rephrase to "How would you rate Canada's role in the middle east" from highly positive to highly negative.

7) If the U.S. was to start or was involved in any other military action, such as an intervention in the Middle East, do you think Canada should provide military support or not?

We need to change the question and rephrase: maybe make it a normative statement such as "Canada should provide military support....." agree or disagree from highly agree to highly disagree.

12) Has the perception of Canada been positively or negatively impacted by Canada's refusal to take part in the American Coalition of the Willing in 2003?

This is a good question but Im not sure if its important enough to select at a 1 of the 5 questions we have as it may not be so relevant to contemporary canadian politics because noone is really regretting that fact publicly at least.

13) To what extent will Canada's future involvement in the Middle East be influenced by United States political pressure?

this is an interesting question

14 A) How concerned are you in securing the Middle-Eastern region for Western Powers and her allies?

14 B) If creating greater security for Western Powers in this region include supporting non-democratic states, traditions that seem unjust to you, and/or states that oppress their citizens' human rights change your views about establishing alliances with these nations?

14 a/b should be rephrased. I think 14b would be slightly confusing to people. I also think using the term "Western Powers" would lead people to believe that we have a particular agenda and would make it more likely to get refusals as people might distrust our intentions. A lot of times when people say 'international community' they really mean western powers. Or maybe use the term NATO members.

15) What do you see as being the main reason for the current Canadian intervention in the middle east? (check as many boxes as you agree with)

This is also a very important question in my opinion.

--DavidSardarizadeh 22:03, 11 October 2010

We have very good discussion and questions but I am not sure we have agreed on a topic?!

Since we said the U.S. does not represent the West and of course Canada, I think it’s important to first decide which group we are talking about: The U.S./Canada/ the West/All?

By the same token, I agree that the questions should be organized by domestic and international levels. There may be some people who support the West’s (/The U.S.’s ) Middle East intervention but think Canada should take a neutral role in the Middle East. And I think that would be interesting to find out.

I like Q13 but it sounds a bit radical to me. Maybe we can rephrase it to “How autonomous you think Canadian Middle East intervention is under the influence of U.S.’s Middle East policy”.

--MandyCheung 14:05, 12 October 2010

yeah i think David S is right in pointing out we have all these questions but still not agreed on a solid topic. I think we should only consider the questions that are based solely on Canadian interests/issues. I think the first five are pretty good as well as 13, 15. I think we should come to a consensus and pick 5 questions. what do you guys think?--DavidHoang 03:05, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

I edited question 7 as well as the answer selection

I think that we should include Q: 4,7,8,9,13,15 with the 5th question being a toss up between 7 and 13.

--DavidSardarizadeh 21:03, 12 October 2010

I dare not to change the question order so I post it here.

1A) How concerned you are with Canada-Middle-East relations?

      a)Very Concerned
      b)Concerned
      c)Indifferent
      d)Unconcerned

1B) How concerned are you with Canadian Middle-East intervention in securing the Middle-Eastern region for Western Powers and her allies?

      a)Very Concerned
      b)Concerned
      c)Indifferent
      d)Unconcerned

I suggest we made 14A into 1B as it helps define “domestic and international perspectives” Also I find Q14B as being too affirmative to say all those seemingly legitimate actions are for “creating greater security for Western Powers”. I suggest we just use the phrase “Middle-East intervention”, or pick Q2, which focuses on the legitimacy of Canadian Middle-East Intervention.

I will choose Q1 ,2, 3, 13(but it needed to be rephrased!), 15

--MandyCheung 22:05, 12 October 2010

Perhaps a Question that would slightly relate to 14B in terms of non democratic states:

Canadian efforts to promote democracy in the region, like those of other western governments, feed into the already rising anti-western sentiments there. - Agree - somewhat agree - disagree - somewhat disagree - I don’t know

Also, perhaps concerning the questions related to Canada's image one could also possibly ask:

Canada's absolute and relative diplomatic influence in the region has declined over the past decade. Do you agree with this statement?

- Agree - somewhat agree - disagree - somewhat disagree - I don’t know

In terms of all the questions so far I agree that there needs to be questions related to a precise issue, like David H. I think the focus should be on Canadian issues. I find questions 14A-B interesting however I think they may need to be more specific to Canada as "western powers and her allies" seems too broad and perhaps people would not know all the countries the question is referring to. Also, I really like question 15 and find it an important question to ask, however, would it help if we were to add "other" to that list? so that they are not confined to those options? --DanisaBlaser 16:00, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Ill go with 1,2,4, 8, 9, 15. --DavidHoang 12:23, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey guys, sorry for coming into this so late. We have a good discussion going and some great questions. In particular I like 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15

I think number 1 is a great opening question, especially in gauging how interested/informed people are on the topic

I think number 7 is a good question to ask and agree with David S. in rephrasing it in order to receive a better value judgment; I also like that it brings in the U.S. as many argue our foreign policy is greatly influenced by/tied to the U.S. That’s why I also liked number 13

I think number 15 is definitely a question we should include. In my opinion, it’s extremely important to ask

I’m not sure if the group has come to a consensus on the general topic of our questions, but I tried picking the ones that had most to do with Canada’s role; though 7 and 13 include the U.S., I think they are still applicable to Canada and important questions to consider

In terms of some of the other questions, number 14 reads a bit confusing to me and I think if the group votes to include it, perhaps we should consider rephrasing it. --KiranNagra 04:09, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

Also, even though we're in the process of elimination now, I thought it might be interesting to include a question about the current UAE-Canada air battle and ask about opinions on Canada-Middle East relations after the UAE has forced Canada out of it's air base; or maybe even ask about how Canada should respond/react - just a thought! --KiranNagra 04:17, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey team: of all our questions, I think 1, 2, 7, 8, 15 are the best ones to include in the survey. In selecting a general idea or theme to focus our questions on I like the idea of including the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as the participation of NATO allies like the U.S. in Middle-Eastern conflicts and how that affects Canada and our decision to become involved or not. I don't think we should include questions on Afghanistan, as our focus is on the Middle East/Iraq, and another group is already concentrating on Afghanistan. --NickMann 09:02, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

Yeah i think that 1,2,7, 8, 15 would be good questions to be on the survey--DavidHoang 16:11, 18 October 2010 (UTC)