Paper 1 source skills (Conflict and intervention)
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Flip to reveal answersWhat is Paper 1 and how is it marked?
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Question
What is Paper 1 and how is it marked?
Answer
A source exam: four sources on one case study, four set questions worth 3, 2, 4, 6 and 9 marks (24 total), in 60 minutes plus 5 minutes' reading. It tests source skill, not recall.
Question
What are the two case studies in Conflict and intervention?
Answer
The Rwandan genocide and intervention (1990–1998), and the Kosovo conflict and NATO intervention (1989–2002).
Question
What does OPVL stand for?
Answer
Origin, Purpose, Value, Limitations — the four-step method for the 4-mark value-and-limitations question.
Question
Which Paper 1 question needs your own knowledge?
Answer
Only the 9-mark judgement (Q4). Q1–Q3 stay inside the sources and are won with method, not memory.
Question
How do you answer the 3-mark comprehension question?
Answer
Make three separate, distinct points that the source actually states — one mark each — with no outside knowledge added.
Question
What wins the 6-mark compare-and-contrast question?
Answer
Linked similarities AND differences between the two sources — never two separate one-source paragraphs.
Question
Why is a biased source still valuable?
Answer
Bias limits it on facts but makes it strong evidence of attitudes — what people wanted believed, e.g. how NATO or Serbia wanted the bombing remembered.
Question
Give a value of a January 1994 UNAMIR cable warning of hidden weapons (Rwanda).
Answer
As a first-hand, dated warning from the force commander before the killing, it proves the UN was warned, so the failure to act was not due to ignorance.
Question
Give a limitation, tied to purpose, of that same UNAMIR cable.
Answer
It is an urgent alarm meant to win permission to act, so it may overstate the immediate threat; it also rests on a single informant.
Question
How should a 9-mark answer on NATO's Kosovo bombing be structured?
Answer
Short intro, both sides using the sources by letter, own facts woven in (850,000 expelled; 78 days; no UN mandate; Resolution 1244/KFOR), source reliability judged, then an explicit verdict.
Question
Compare how the Rwanda and Kosovo interventions differed.
Answer
In Rwanda the world pulled back and failed to stop the genocide; in Kosovo NATO acted forcefully but without UN Security Council authority — so both units test the limits of outside intervention.
Question
What is the Paper 1 mark memory hook, and what is the total?
Answer
'3-2-4-6-9' — the five questions run 3, 2, 4, 6 and 9 marks and add up to 24. Spend about one minute per mark.
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