Policy Paper Assignment -
In this assignment analyze a variety of issues faced by people in our own society and around the world. Topics include many of the items you discussed in your "Doing ITS" Assignment. Other items include environmental issues in Africa, human rights in the Middle East and economic development in Latin America, and global issues such as health and poverty, gender inequality and economic disparity.
In this assignment you will be asked to write a policy analysis paper in which you analyze an issue of international concern and identify potential options for responding to it. This paper consists of three components. First, you will identify one problem to be assessed, and analyze it using the terms and analytical perspectives from at least three of the five composite disciplines of ITS (History, Anthropology, Geography, Economics and Political Science). Second, you will be asked to identify two policy options aimed at addressing the problem. Third, you will make a final policy recommendation for responding to the issue that is rooted in your research and your discussion of the particular problem.
Objectives:
- Critical thinking: That you will be able to critically analyze academic texts, ?international news, maps, and histories.
- Core concepts: That you will develop a basic competence in the core concepts of the five disciplines of ITS, including an awareness of how these disciplines frame problems.
- Applying disciplinary contexts: That you will learn to use historical background, geographical context, political systems, economic structures, and socio-cultural milieu to better understand regional and global developments.
- Composition: That you will begin to write interdisciplinary, evidence-based analyses of contemporary international issues (i.e., how concepts from two or more different ITS disciplines provide complementary approaches to better understanding a specific issue).
The layout of your paper should closely resemble the following suggested format:
Introduction: .5 pages
Description of problem being assessed: 2 pages
Description of 2 policy options: 2 pages
Description of the one policy recommendation: 2 pages
Conclusion: .5 pages
Papers will be 7 pages double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12) with 1-inch page margins.