Apology for giving you long time to wait for my reply; actually, I didn't see your nice questions thats why I remained indifferent.

I already shared my strategy:since, I told naaa that ir is not an easy nut to be cracked with little effort:you need to first study international organizations or history of USA.
I adopted US history as a weapon of my first choice, and alhamdollilah it did work.
Like you won't understand cold war unless you have no command on pay of pig crisis, kennedys assessination, role of big brothers and pactomaniacs such as Dulles brother.(since i have strong inclination towards history thats why it saved my precious hours)
Either opt US history or international law-in case of both-- its a wonderful selection.
Lastly, I also opted geography, and again thanks to my Allah it really made my day.
,
Again history of realism though started at the sun tzu or nicholas Machiavelli, yet demo begins with mcCRthyism: cold war doctrine. if you didn't understand, go to Wikipedia.It uses very simple and understandable jargons.
Refer to deterrance, nuclear deterrence is my favourite topic, since I did mention in my essay that how peace is staked and we have created foes under the guise of such non-sensical expenditures, yeah no need to mention big cartels and multinational industrial complexes--even Dwight eisenhower was being fed up by such advance weaponry system, just merely to intimidate the world and to establish the American vast imperial empire.
Best strategy is to read, read and than write your own notes.
Already told that I make my own notes, since for one topic, I study from book+some PDF+some sites+and even I watch TV shows(to sum up these and drawing your own analysis without making notes is like spreading the whole mosaic in a chaotic order)that's why its must to make your own notes, though it is time consuming but it will help you in papers.

Conclusion from Realism and deterrence

Right my conclusion (though you may disagree)

1.International arena of politics work on realism and anarchy is reigning supreme because of the concept of multipoper world order, yet imperialism of America has competitive advantage in terms of nuclear, military, power, and geostrategic deterrence.In realism propaganda campaigns have some influential bases, that's why we see international bogy man which was communism in cold war era and in contemporary politics replaced with fanatics and obscurtanatist.
2.For developing state like Pakistan, its almost impossible to survive, since we have our own geographical, economical and sociocultural vulnerabilities. I mean, proxies, obssessive sheikhdoms in our politics and having a great game at western border.(list is infinite and I hope its more than enough to get the main idea)
Yeah, Goldstein is good, go to fpscs recommended books, they will definitely serve the purpose.
Related to question,
Drop in yaraaa, inshallah I will try my level best.
Already told and even mention some books, for cold war I study Devils chessboard by David Talbot, but again you won't understand it until you know the history of USA in detail.
P.S.That's my own personal opinion and I hope other seniors would love to guide you as well.
For essay and composition, I took ESL classes, I believe clear your concepts and write as much as you can, rest place your question where you have difficulty inshalah I will try.