Select first a country (you cannot pick the US or China), and secondly an international organization IO, or NGO (aid, development, environmental, indigenous peoples, etc.), or a transnational corporation.

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Research and write a policy brief on a topic of your choice according to the following criteria:

1) Select first a country (you cannot pick the US or China), and secondly an international organization IO, or NGO (aid, development, environmental, indigenous peoples, etc.), or a transnational corporation.

2) Analyze the interaction of your two chosen actors. There are many different analytical angles that qualify for your paper. For example, the focus can either be on how an international organization works in a particular country, or how a particular country is trying to shape policies of a particular IO. Come talk to me if you are not sure if your idea works.

Policy brief: Imagine you are writing this note for a superior who needs to get a very quick and basic overview of the issue but does know little to nothing about it.

Structure of your essay (note that this will likely vary depending on what exactly you are doing!)

1) Executive summary: Say which two actors you look at and give key findings (150 words).

2) Brief introduction of the topic/description of the problem the two actors interact on. This will NOT be the main part of your paper, do not get lost in a long description of a problem or a country’s situation.

Quickly move to the analysis! (200- 300 words).

– What is your organization doing, what does the interaction between the two actors involve, how has it evolved? This will be the main part of your paper! Be analytical, not descriptive. (800-1000 words)

– Concluding analysis: how successful has the cooperation/interaction been, what kind of problems may have emerged, what policy lessons can be learned (if any), what could be done better, etc.? (300-400 words).

Total length, titel page and references included: 1500 to 2000 words.

Requirement for source material:

1) you need at least one primary source document from the international organization. (A primary source is a document published by the organization itself, such as programmatic or strategic policy documents. See links below that can take you to source material available through some of the IOs)

2) at least 6 more sources of information, of which:

– at least 1 scholarly source, (either book or academic article for general background NOT listed in syllabus);

– at least 1 source from the required reading listed in syllabus; – newspaper articles (use major national or international newspapers), reports/analysis from think tanks or NGOs;

– one source can be self-presentation by actor (website, press releases).

Submission: submit either a WORD (preferred) or PDF file.

You will be graded on:

– Topical fit with essay prompt here. Stick to something that fits well with this prompt.

– Analytical depth (ability to critically analyze and reflect on your source material): analyze, don’t just describe!

– Organization: provide a clear structure and narrative for your policy brief. – Quality of your reference material: An url-link found somewhere on the Internet is NOT a proper or necessarily credible source. For any reference used you must be able to identify the author, title, publication date. For Internet resources, add the date you accessed the material.

– Clarity of writing and grammar!!! Avoid repetition and long complicated sentences. Avoid spelling errors any program will capture.

– Proper referencing (see page 3 for one way to do this). Do NOT use footnotes.