Policy Brief
For the final assignment, you will compose a 5-page policy brief for a leader or policymaker with a stake in Middle East politics and security. The relevant Course Objectives for this assignment are:
CO-4: Distinguish the role of foreign states in the MENA.
CO-5: Deconstruct the role of non-state actors within MENA politics.
The Recipient or Audience
Select an elected official, head of state, head of council, or administration to whom you will be addressing your brief. Some ideas include:
The new Biden administration
Vladimir Putin
António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
President of the European Council
… or basically any president, prime minister, or king of the states relevant to our class.
Your task is to make the selected stakeholder aware of three security issues concerning the Middle East and North Africa. Think of issues that have immediately implications for this stakeholder and the interests of their state or mandate as a policymaker. Keep in mind that a brief delivered to President Biden would look different from the document handed to Tayyip Erdoğan, as they have different stakes in the region and different relationships to consider. You may have to recalibrate your purview of the region to match your choice of recipient.
The Brief
The purpose of a policy brief is to get the reader up to speed quickly with accurate, critical information that can inform decisions. One important goal is to draw out the practical implications of a specific situation. In this case, the practical implications concern the political and security and interests of the recipient.
Using our class readings and any additional sources necessary, you will present the three most pressing security concerns this leader needs to be aware of immediately. Your brief should be effective in these respects:
Accurate, specific, and evidence-based
Objective, without intrusion of personal beliefs
Well-sourced, informed by reputable sources
Concise
The Structure
Open with an executive summary. This is a short introduction that identifies the three security issues you’ll be covering. If you arrived at an overarching policy recommendation, state this up front. Remember that the objective is to inform your reader efficiently, so do not leave your main points as surprises to be discovered later.
Next, organize the brief by issues 1, 2, and 3 using headings. You can include the following sections for each one as an organizing principle, although there are other formats you may adopt:
Summary of the Problem. Explain the security issue and why it’s a problem for the interests of the audience. Be sure there is a sufficient amount of detail to show that you have sufficiently researched the problem.
Policy Status. What is the current policy on this problem, if any, and what are the limitations in light of the information you just presented? What’s at stake in the current configuration of things?
Policy Recommendation. What course of action should the reader take in light of the preceding points? What are the pros and cons of your recommendation?
Sources. For this assignment, include at least four class readings, but you should also consult outside sources if they are appropriate, timely, and reputable. Keep in mind that a good policymaker would never take action based on a brief that is only supported by websites and news articles.
The recommended citation method is Chicago, Author-Date: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html.
Scope of the Issues
The issues should be relevant to our course objectives. The most convincing briefs will recognize that there are multiple relationships and sets of actors involved in a given problem. Recommendations should reflect these realities.
