Policy breif

Policy breif 

Paper details Research and write a policy brief on a topic of your choice according to the following criteria: 1) Pick either a country (except for the United States prefer South Korea if possible), an international NGO (aid, development, environmental, indigenous peoples, etc.), or a transnational corporation 2) Analyze the interaction of your chosen actor with one of the international organizations we have discussed or will still be discussing in class). You can also pick the international organization first and then – second – look what it does in a particular country or how it works with an NGO or transnational corporation. 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!) – Say which two actors you will be looking at – Brief introduction of the topic/description of the problem the two actors interact on (this will NOT be the main part of your paper) – 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!) – Concluding analysis: how successful has the cooperation/interaction been, what kind of problems may have emerged, what policy lessons to be learned (if any), what could be done better, etc.? Requirement for source material:

1) you need at least one primary source document from the international organization (see links below that can take you to source material available through some of the IOs) 2) at least four more sources of information, of which: – at least one scholarly source, either book or academic article for general background NOT listed in syllabus – other sources can be newspaper articles, think tank or NGO reports covering the topic (use major national or international newspapers); – one source can be self-presentation (website, press releases) of your main actor. Submission: submit a hard copy in class by the due date, and submit an electronic copy the same day Length: 1000 to 1400 words (for reference, this 2-page prompt is 1120 words). Format: single-spaced, print on both sides of paper, one-inch margins You will be graded on: – Analytical depth (ability to identify different views and source material) – Organization, clarity of writing!!! – Proper referencing (see next page for one way to do this). Do NOT use footnotes. IMPORTANT: Sign the hard copy of your essay to attest that it 1) is the result of your own research and 2) has been written by yourself. Particularly if you are not a native English speaker, you may have someone read and make editing suggestions to your essay before you submit it AFTER you wrote it. NOTE: See academic integrity policy at the end. We may invite selected students to come discuss their essays with us. Examples for topics: but you can link practically any country with any of the International Organizations or NGOs: – Indonesia and the WTO (pick a WTO case that Indonesia was involved in) – Zambia and the World Bank/IMF (country lending agreement, or specific program) – World Bank or UNDP programs in country X – Iceland and the IMF (bailout and structural adjustment) – Doctors’ Without Borders and UN (how NGO works with the UN on humanitarian issues) – China and the UN Security Council (how China has voted on different issues and why?) – WWF and Global Environment Facility (GEF) (NGO contracting with GEF as executing agency) – Google and the UNDP – Pharma Industry and Word Trade Organization April 15, 2019 – Nigeria and Shell Oil (how oil company interacts with a country or vice versa) – Your idea! Come discuss with me if you are unsure.

Links to primary source material: (there are others, see also links listed in course overheads): United Nations Security Council: http://www.un.org/en/sc/documents/resolutions/ UNDP Project Database: http://open.undp.org/#2018 UNDP evaluation products: http://web.undp.org/evaluation/evaluations/thematic-evaluations.shtml World Bank Country Strategies: http://www.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/country-strategies World Bank Project Database: http://projects.worldbank.org/ World Bank Evaluations: http://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/country-evaluation IMF: http://www.imf.org/external/country/ WTO: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_status_e.htm GEF (Global Environment Facility) project database: https://www.thegef.org/projects Citation Guidelines: There are several citation guides out there. One of the most widely used citation style in the social sciences is from the American Psychological Association (APA): http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/apa/ DO NOT use footnotes or endnotes for references! In rare cases you may use a footnote to explain something that you deem does not belong in the main text.