Assignment Instructions
The Final Paper assesses the final two Course objectives:
CO-4 Analyze the current trends and manifestations of terrorism and consequent challenges they pose for U.S. national security policies.
CO-5 Apply contemporary theories and methods derived from anti- and counter-terrorism policies to US national security issues.
This 6- page policy paper is due at the end of week 8. Similar to the Midterm, you will rely on the course readings, but you may include current event examples from approved news sources (The Foreign Policy Magazine, Foreign Affairs, the Economist, CNN, BBC). You may also use official sites of the U.S. federal agencies (CIA.org, FBI.org, and so forth).
You are the National Security Adviser to the President. Your role is to determine the agenda for National Security Council, a principal foreign policy forum, ensuring that all national security papers are prepared according to the Council’s objectives and President’s decisions. One of your most critical tasks is to prepare a National Security Strategy, which is a comprehensive document, providing a clear set of directives to meet the U.S. most critical national security goals. While the Strategy document requires team work and input from different national security agencies, your initial task is to prepare a proposal, focused on terrorism.
The 2014 National-Strategy Proposal is a 6–page document that describes an overall plan on how to prevent and reduce terrorism. It must include the following elements:
Introductory part: Only about a page long. What is the goal of national-security policy? What have your learned about terrorism, and how has it evolved?
Analytical Section: 4 pages long. In this section, you will describe current terrorist trends, threats and focus areas. Then, you will apply anti and counter-terrorist policies. Because we did not include any past policy in our readings, you will use the last three week’s readings that have policy elements and suggestions, written by scholars with different views. You will need to review these policy ideas to formulate your own. Using previous National Security documents is not allowed.
Concluding section: Summary with a clearly stated path forward, about a page long.
Submit your finished paper as a 6-page double-spaced word document in 12 pt. font. Use the Turabian Reference Style with in-text citations to reference all sources, including the course readings. Don’t forget to write a Reference List at the end of your paper.
