REVIEW
by research supervisor of the graduate qualification paper submitted by the second-year student of the 
Strategic and Arms Control Studies master’s program at SPbSU

Aleksandra Eremina
(first name, last name of the student)
titled Iran in US Foreign Policy (2016-2020): the Peculiarities of Foreign Policy Making
(title)
1. Assessment of the paper:
No.	Assessment Criteria
(codes of competences according to curriculum)	Grade:
•	excellent, A (5.0)
•	good, B (4.5)
•	good, C (4.0)
•	satisfactory, D (3.5)
•	satisfactory, E (3.0)
•	unsatisfactory, F (0.0)  	Reviewer’s Comments
(mandatory for those criteria on which the paper is assessed critically or downgraded)
1.	Academic relevance of the research problem 
(ОПК-4, ПКА-5)	A	
2.	Scholarly contribution by the author
(ОПК-4, ПКА-2, ПКА-3, ПКА-5, ПКА-6, ПКП-9)	A	
3.	Appropriateness of the research objective, coherence of research objective and research tasks
(ОПК-4, ПКА-2, ПКА-5, ПКА-6, ПКА-10, ПКП-9)	B	The thesis focuses on one major peculiarity of US foreign policy making process, that is the changing role of the Congress (as based on the author`s hypothesis). Thus, a detailed description of the powers (and history) of individual agencies of the Executive seems to be excessive. 
4.	Quality of the empirical scope and of the primary sources review
(ПКА-2, ПКА-7, ПКП-4)	B	The logic on which the author bases her classification of primary sources is sometimes unclear. Do sources of legislative authority also encompass documents of the Congress? Or what is the difference between them. 
5.	Comprehensiveness of secondary sources (academic literature) employed by the author
(ПКА-2, ПКА-7)	A	
6.	Adequacy of chosen research methods to the stated research objective and research tasks  
(ПКА-2, ПКА-8, ПКА-10) 	A	The research is heavily based on FPA approach. However, the basic tenets of this approach are discussed in the text earlier, long before the author outlined methodology. Thus, it somewhat compromised consistency of description of methodology. 
7.	Correspondence of empirical results to the stated research objective and research tasks
(ОПК-7, ПКА-2, ПКА-3, ПКА-5, ПКА-6, ПКП-4, ПКП-9)	A	
8.	Text formatting and editing 
(ОПК-7, ПКА-7)	B	The author didn`t provide Russian titles of secondary sources in Russian. It complicated the task of evaluating the balance between the secondary sources originating in Russia and elsewhere.  
9.	Diligence, consistency, and responsibility demonstrated by the student when writing the paper
(ОПК-7, УК-6)	A	
Average grade:	A

2. Conclusion/Recommendations for the evaluation commission: The thesis is a thorough study of the changing activity and role of the US Congress that can be undoubtedly considered a basic peculiarity of foreign policy making process. The author provides an accurate and detailed description of the Congress`s activity, also focusing on its foreign policy tools. As a result, substantive conclusions are made on the role of legislature, including the limitations on the role of Congress and the factors that empower it. Thus, the thesis though probably limited in scope to basically congressional issues delivers substantive empirical results that correspond completely to the research objective.   

3. Recommended grade (in ECTS): A



Date 10.06.22




Yu. Boguslavskaya, Associate Professor, SPbSU

Title, name and signature of research supervisor