Self-study
Many of the presidents and prime ministers who have had the most successful foreign policies had no prior experience in foreign affairs when they assumed office. ████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ██████ ██ █████████████ ███████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ██████ █ ███████████ ████████████ ███ █ ██████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███████ █ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █ ███████ ███████████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███████
Summary
Political leaders can succeed in foreign policy without prior experience in foreign affairs. How? Because anyone with (1) an acute political sense, (2) a disciplined temperament, and (3) a highly developed ability to retain information quickly can succeed in foreign policy. What about prior experience? Well, that alone will not guarantee success in foreign policy if one lacks all three of those traits.
Notable Valid Inferences
Unclear. Best head to the answers and use POE.
11.
If all of the statements █████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████
a
Scholars and diplomats ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████ █████████ █████ ██ ███████
Could be false. No comparison was made between scholars and diplomats on the one hand versus most presidents and prime ministers on the other in terms of who has more experience in foreign affairs.
b
Prior experience in ███████ ███████ ██ ███████ █ ██████████ ███ █ █████████ █████████ ███ █ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ████ █ ██████████ ███████ ███████
Must be true. The first sentence proves that prior experience is not necessary. Some leaders succeeded without any prior experience. The last sentence proves that prior experience is not sufficient. If a leader has prior experience yet lacks all three traits, they won’t be successful.
c
Prior experience in ███████ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ███ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███ █ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ████ █ ██████████ ███████ ███████
Must be false. The first sentence proves that prior experience is not necessary. Some leaders succeeded without any prior experience.
d
An acute political ██████ █ ███████████ ████████████ ███ █ ██████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██████████ ███ █ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ████ █ ██████████ ███████ ███████
Could be false. The stimulus proves that the three traits are jointly sufficient. Together they guarantee success. But that’s not to be confused with being individually necessary. There could be other ways to be successful.
e
A president or █████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ █ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████
Could be false. There is no information in the stimulus that suggests that prior experience is the deciding factor. Hence, we cannot be sure of the comparison that a leader with prior experience will be more successful than one without.