Policy brief and presentation guidelines PSCI 3143 – 003: Current Affairs in IR Roosevelt – Fall 2018 Assignment description: In lieu of a final exam, you will wrap up your semester studying current affairs in international relations with a short paper and presentation analyzing some current international political event, with a focus on relevant policy options available both to national governments and the international community. The issue you pick may be related to a topic we studied in class, or may be some ongoing political event unrelated to those we have discussed together. If you do choose to analyze something related to one of our class topics, you should be very precise in your focus on a particular aspect of it. For instance, we briefly covered the politics of migration in Week 3; you may write your policy brief on something to do with human migration, but you must specify the focus of your paper more narrowly – pick one country facing a specific issue related to migration, or a particular event in some country ’ s migration politics, and discuss policy options in the context of this unique situation. This document will provide information about what I expect in the written policy brief and in the short oral presentation. You can find technical specifications about paper length, required elements, and formatting, a description of how to structure each section of the paper, and a checklist of what to include in the in-class presentation. Technical details: - 5-7 pages in length - Double-spaced, conventional font (i.e. 12pt Times New Roman or comparable) - Use section headers - these should use normal font and spacing, but indicate that you ’ re moving on to a different part of the paper (perhaps number, boldface, or underline these) - Last name and page number on each page (header or footer) - Consistent academic citations in text + bibliography - Minimum 2 academic sources (i.e. books and/or peer-reviewed journal articles) - Paper is worth 25% of your final grade Section-by-section paper details: Introduction o One paragraph to one page in length – no longer. This should give just enough detail so that the rest of your paper makes sense; consider writing this section last. o Give a brief synopsis of the relevant history of your event. o This should not give an entire timeline of (for example) the Libyan Civil War or go into a lot of detail describing the lives and background of various actors. o Instead, it should — in a few sentences — tell the reader what the event is, how/when it started, what the present situation is, and why this is a political event that domestic and international actors should take an interest in.
Policy brief and presentation guidelines PSCI 3143 – 003: Current Affairs in IR Roosevelt – Fall 2018 o Preview of the structure of the paper – tell the reader what you will do in each of the following sections, in order. o First, you will discuss two policy options that the relevant national government has at its disposal (tell the reader briefly what these are). o Then, you will discuss two policy options available to international actors (tell the reader what these are). o Finally, you will reach a conclusion about which of these policy options you feel has the most potential to resolve the issue neatly or lead the event to a favorable outcome – tell the reader, in one sentence, which of these policy options you will advocate for and the main reason you see it as the most promising. Domestic policy options o Approximately 2 pages in length, comparing two potential policy options that are available to the relevant national government. o For example, if the issue you are analyzing is the progress of the migrant caravan from Central America, the relevant national government could be the US (its purported destination), Mexico (where it currently is), or any other that you see as relevant – but you need to pick ONE country to focus on. o These could be policies that the government has stated they are considering, policies suggested by political opposition or NGOs, or adaptations of ones you ’ ve seen other countries implement in similar situations. o Place to cite statements from governments, credible news sources - In the first paragraph of this section, identify and briefly summarize the two policy options and what government institutions would be involved - In the remainder of this section, develop each policy option in greater detail and clearly justify why each policy would be a reasonable way to address your topic o Have other countries done this? o Is there academic research to suggest that these domestic policies are well-suited to countries like the one you ’re analyzing (e.g. Policy A has had success in democracies, in developing countries, in former colonies … , so it should work here)? o Place to cite academic research International community policy options o Approximately 2 pages in length, comparing two potential policy options that are available to international actors. o International actors could be a coalition of allied states, joint members of an organization/trade area/treaty with your country, the UN, the International Criminal Court, international NGOs or nonprofits, etc. o These could be policies that the international community has stated it is considering, policies suggested by various international actors, or ones that international actors have attempted before in similar situations. o Place to cite statements from governments, credible news sources
Policy brief and presentation guidelines PSCI 3143 – 003: Current Affairs in IR Roosevelt – Fall 2018 - In the first paragraph of this section, identify and briefly summarize the two policy options and what international actors (specific states, IGOs, institutions, or NGOs) would be involved - In the remainder of this section, develop each policy option in greater detail and clearly justify why each policy would be a reasonable way to address your topic o Is this something the IGO/institution/NGO/coalition of states has done before in response to similar events? o Is there academic research to suggest that these international policies are well- suited to countries like the one you ’re analyzing (e.g. Policy A has had success in democracies, in developing countries, in former French colonies … , so it should work here)? o Place to cite academic research Discussion/conclusion - A couple of short paragraphs, or approximately one page, in length - Which domestic policy option would be more likely to move this event to an ideal resolution? Which international policy option would? o Note that this requires some normative justification on your part of what a favorable resolution of the issue would look like - Considering the specific circumstances of the country and event you are analyzing, why would these domestic/international policies be superior to their alternatives? - If the domestic or international policy you advocate for were to be implemented, what would you expect to happen with regards to your current event? - End the paper with a short paragraph that recapitulates what you have said – literally, something lik: In this policy brief, I have considered ______________ domestic policy options and ________ international policy options as potential ways to address __________ current event, and concluded that, based on __________ factors, _________ policy is best suited to resolve this issue. References Paraphrased ideas should be cited in the text parenthetically (author year) or in footnotes 1 - - Direct quotes should be cited in the text parenthetically (author year: page) or in footnotes 2 - Either way, remain consistent throughout the paper, and give full citations in a bibliography/references section using a consistent citation format (click “ under links in Google Scholar for quickly formatted citations) - At least two academic citations required - There is no numeric requirement for non-academic sources, but these must be from credible, not overtly partisan outlets. If you cite websites, they should have .gov or .org suffixes (or the national suffix for other countries ’ government websites) 1 Author year 2 Author year: page
Policy brief and presentation guidelines PSCI 3143 – 003: Current Affairs in IR Roosevelt – Fall 2018 Presentation: - Approximately 5 minutes in length - Will take place in class during Weeks 15 and 16 - Provide slides in PowerPoint or comparable software - Plan to present about 4 substantive slides, spending about a minute per slide o Cover/title slide – name and title that indicates what your current event is o Slide 1 – similar to intro section of policy brief, give just enough background info on your country/issue that the rest of the presentation makes sense. You do not have time to get into detail about how the event evolved, who certain people are, the history of your country ’ s government … o Slide 2 – clearly highlight 2 domestic policy options and explain them briefly with bullet points, a pro/con list, or a chart of some sort – whatever helps you compare the key components of the two o Slide 3 – do the same thing for international policy options – make sure you ’ re clear about who the international actors would be for each o Slide 4 – which domestic/international policy do you think should be undertaken in order to bring the event to a satisfactory resolution, and (briefly) why? - Color and pictures are helpful, but should never detract or distract from the point you are trying to make!
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