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.
Resources
Resources and examples of briefs from our APUS Library: https://apus.libanswers.com/writing/faq/228884.
The Policy Brief: https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blog.lrei.org/dist/c/104/files/2009/11/PolicyBrief-described.pdf.
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