Ilim Sultanov

Every day millions of people go to bed hungry and become malnourished. Poor people don't have jobs, thus, they have no other choice but to starve themselves to death. Due to high corruption in third world countries, poverty and hunger are killing roughly 21,000 people every day. Most of them are kids and women. With the knowledge of International Relations in the Political Science field I plan on joining the United Nations Development Programme on hunger and poverty reduction projects to make a difference on someone else's life. If my contribution towards common good can change or save someone's life then my life has a purpose.

As graduate student, I would like to concentrate in government with a subfield of International Relations, undertaking a research on effectiveness of national, state and local government policies of Singapore and Russia in the past five decades. Specifically, my thesis statement could be written to try to answer the following question: How productive were the tactics of Singapore's anti corruption agency-Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau under Lee Kuan Yew compared to Russia's anti corruption agency under Vladimir Putin on the national, state and local level? To gain a much deeper understanding of history of corruption and strategies against this problem in Singapore and Russia, I intend to take government courses that are focused on the effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies.
     For my thesis to be well written and precise, I would like to undertake my research paper under the supervision of government professor whose interests are the Russian and Post-Soviet government and politics. Since the break up of the Soviet Union, Russia's national government has been weak in implementing an anti-corruption agency with extensive powers and control. Similarly, fourteen Post-Soviet republics, including Kyrgyzstan have followed an unproductive path in combating corruption. Ultimately, I hope to compare Singapore's productiveness in fighting corruption and Russia's root causes of flaws in failed anti-corruption policies. Thus, I am looking forward to produce a well-constructed research paper.

As former varsity swim team member in high school, I enjoy swimming recreationally. Swimming is a stress reliever for me. Whenever I am overwhelmed with school projects or family issues, swimming eases my mind and gives me solutions to the problems that I face.