Assignment: FOREIGN POLICY BRIEF
Intro to International Relations
A policy brief requires a succinct consideration of policy options for a specific audience. It is not a traditional research paper. In this paper, you will explain a foreign policy problem, its context, current approaches, how they are failing, and offer other policy options. This paper should be approximately 10-pages long.
I. Choose a topic you wish to address. Here is a list of possible topics. You may also consult me if you wish to write on another topic of international scope. I highly recommend that you choose a topic of interest to you.
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Economic
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Military
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Health
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Other
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US sanctions on Iran
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Russian Military Expansion
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Pandemics
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Global gender equality
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Trans-Pacific partnership
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International Terrorism
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Global nutrition
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Cyber Warfare
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NAFTA's Future
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NATO Expansion
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Access to water
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Refugee populations
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Development aid
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South China Sea dispute
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Drug prices
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Drug trafficking
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World Bank loan conditions
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Arms trade
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Aids awareness
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Human trafficking
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II. Your policy brief can be addressed to a non-governmental organization (e.g. Amnesty International), a government (e.g. the president of the U.S.A. or any other country), or an inter/supra-governmental organization (e.g. the UN Security Council or the European Parliament).
III. Once you have selected your topic and your perspective, you will need to do extensive research. Your research should draw from books, scholarly journals, and other sources (including, but not limited to, news sources and international think tanks).
• Use databases available through the Santa Fe College Library website like JStor and Academic Search Complete - specifically you will be looking at political science and history journals. Please confirm that the journals you are using are peer- reviewed.
• Use widely recognized news sources:
o General News Sources: The New York Times, Washington Post, Aljazeera, BBC,
o Specialty News Sources: Foreign Affairs, Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Policy
o If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of your source contact me.
• Use think tank sites like the Council on Foreign Relations, The Foreign Policy Research Institute, or The Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis.
• Use government or organizational websites like the US State Department or the United Nations.
IV. Your paper should be organized in the following way:
• The first page should be a title page. This page should include your name, your student ID, the name and section number of this class, the date, and an executive summery. An executive summary is a one paragraph, single-spaced summation of your essay. It should also include the name of the organization or individual you are briefing. This does not count toward your page total.
• The body of your brief should include the following
• A statement of the issue/problem you are addressing.
• Background of the problem or issue: Include only the essential facts. Assume that you have been hired as an expert to filter through the research on the behalf of another. Be clear and succinct.
• Explain your organization's interest in the issue: what is at stake? How specifically does this organization have the capacity to help?
• Explain the current policy that your organization has adopted toward this issue. Why is it inadequate? (If this organization has not addressed the issue yet, this is a policy-orientation).
• Provide a recommendation for future action. This may mean weighing the costs and benefits of multiple options before coming down on the side of your recommendation. You should be working within the realm of reality. Utopian solutions will not fly. Be a draft horse not a Pegasus. Because you are attempting to formulate viable solutions to real world problems provide a timeline for implementation and outline benchmarks for success.
• Any graphs, charts, or images that you use should be included in an appendix. They do not count toward your page total but are necessary if you seek an A on this paper. Images used should contribute to your argument.
• Your bibliography should be provided at the very end.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.