+1 862 207 3288
The policy brief will consist of a short paper outlining a particular policy problem and recommending options to deal with that problem. The purpose of the brief is to develop your ability to apply the concepts and principles of American foreign policy to the daily flow of events and to specific foreign policy issues. A policy brief requires the kind of research and synthesis that you undertake in a conventional essay—i.e. it is an analytical exercise—but it presents its findings in a somewhat different form as a series of policy options for a typical audience of decision- makers in government, business, or the NGO sector. The president and cabinet depend on policy briefs and so do officials of development agencies and NGOs. The papers are meant to be succinct: keep in mind these are meant to be read by people who are under severe time pressures and limited time to make decisions. Please assume that you are a US policy advisor, writing for a US audience. You can restrict your research to policy journals (such as Foreign Affairs), the media, and official US policy documents.
A good way to organize the brief would be to have three sections, each providing a different aspect of the analysis:
• Section 1: what’s the issue? – here you will provide the background to issue at hand
• Section 2: what are the options? – here you will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different positions on the issue
• Section 3: what is your recommendation? – finally, based on a combination of the two previous sections, you will give your recommendations for future policy, and some indication of how practical the option(s) is.
The best sources for the topics will be the academic-oriented policy journals (e.g. Foreign Affairs) and policy institutes (e.g. Brookings). The national level press in the US will also be valuable. It is assumed that the policy brief will be properly referenced and researched.
