I met with my mentor, Professor Hardig, on January 31^st for about fifteen minutes. He read over my introduction draft and was especially impressed with the organization of it. For the most part, he thought I was making a solid start with my research. He did, though, have a suggestion regarding my case studies. Originally, I had planned to do a case comparison between Iraq before the US invasion and then Iraq after the US invasion, researching the change in the level of persecution directed at religious minorities as a result of this invasion. Professor Hardig suggested that rather than having Iraq as my case studies, I research other instances of foreign intervention that may or may not have led to increased persecution levels. Thus, instances of foreign intervention would become my cases. He suggested looking at a minimum of three cases, perhaps after the Cold War, and using the presence (or absence) of some of my intervening variables to assist in my case selection. This would change my research somewhat, but I agree with professor Hardig that such research would be more meaningful than simply researching the cases in Iraq. I hope that by our next meeting I will have expanded on my literature review and selected my cases.