Policy Memo Topic Question

[scholl43]

I'm wondering if anyone can help me out on this. I'm torn between doing a policy memo on U.S. foreign policy toward one specific (small, but volatile) country vs. doing immigration policy toward that country. I fear that the broader topic is too broad, but when I've searched for specific information on immigration policy, it's difficult to find enough recent statistics.

Is the broader topic fine? It would include immigration, but also examine the democratic process, development issues, debt, and the drug trade.

[riz1]

Hard to squeeze that much material into a two-page policy memo ... perhaps you can mention those as challenges, and design your analysis and recommendations around broader implications of those challenges.

[Batignolles]

In my not (yet) admitted opinion, I think if you're writing a foreign policy piece for a MPP or MPA program, you can consider two pretty broad choices:

(1) Write about a very specific aspect of foreign policy between any two countries (or equally involve non-state actors, like the EU). You can address a particular recent issue / point of contention / concern in depth. This shows your ability to productively contribute to a specific ongoing debate, considering different points of view and evaluating different proposed solutions in depth.

(2) Write about foreign policy more broadly, but one of the pair should be a smaller or less addressed country. So here you can show how (for example) the U.S. can integrate its conflicting goals and interests into a comprehensive approach to Mozambique. But here you could also choose, say, Guinea-Bissau's approach to Russia (a very interesting topic!). I think this one shows an ability to address contradictions or conflicting interests (which might not be apparent if, say, you restricted yourself only to a smaller topic like energy or immigration policy between the two nations).

I think each approach has its merits, but carefully choosing the right focus and depth will be essential to success in either case... any other thoughts out there in the Grad Cafe community?

[Cornell07]

Mine was something about cotton subsidies vs. Sub-Saharan Africa, especially their impact on terrorism and the role of China. It was good enough for SAIS. I mainly wrote it to show that I knew something about economic issues, despite being a state security guy who usually deals with balance of power, nukes, terrorists, and so forth.

[riz1]

My policy brief was a set of recommendations for the incoming Obama administration to implement as part of its approach to South Asian (Indo-Pak) relations, particularly in light of those two countries' nuclear arsenals, the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, and broader security implications for the region and other areas of strategic US interest.

[zourah]

I wrote about the then-popular talk of a "League of Democracies" and the things it could possibly accomplish (while spelling out the reasons why its backers were incorrect to believe it could rival the UN/lend legitimacy to their pet policy wishes, etc.) It let me play with counterfactual diplomatic negotiations and look seriously at world power alliances.

[thombo]

I've actually been working over the last few days on the SAIS supplemental essay, and while I first interpreted it as a policy analysis/memo type question, upon rereading the prompt I was thrown off by the "its concern to you" clause. How have you all interpreted "its concern to you"? I mean, if I'm writing on a topic, it's clearly of interest... but do I need to include why its of personal interest to me? Are they looking for policy analysis as well as insight into who I am (as the SoP is supposed to do), or is it strictly a policy memo?

[zourah]

I've actually been working over the last few days on the SAIS supplemental essay, and while I first interpreted it as a policy analysis/memo type question, upon rereading the prompt I was thrown off by the "its concern to you" clause. How have you all interpreted "its concern to you"? I mean, if I'm writing on a topic, it's clearly of interest... but do I need to include why its of personal interest to me? Are they looking for policy analysis as well as insight into who I am (as the SoP is supposed to do), or is it strictly a policy memo?

I definitely didn't modify my basic policy statement to include much of the "concern to me" part. Then again, some discussion of my interest in the topic appeared in my SOP already... but nonetheless, I wouldn't worry about it.