Policy Memo Descriptions and Requirements
Policy Memo Descriptions and Requirements
The policy memo assignment is designed to provide you with the opportunity to try and provide
a tentative solution to a strategic-level homeland security problem in the United States by
applying lessons-learned from other countries. You should follow the same
process/organization in the draft memo and final memo. The final memo should involve
addressing my feedback to your draft memo.
The objective of the assignment is not only to allow you to conduct a deep-dive into another
country’s policies and then conduct an analysis to determine applicability, but also to help
teach you how to write policy memos (as opposed to traditional academic papers). Policy
memos (and briefings based on these memos) are the mortar of government in that they form
the basis for much of what government does in the realm of policymaking.
The memo itself should be 10-12 pages long and include a 1-2 page executive summary (more
on the executive summary later).
Please follow the following steps in designing/structuring your memo:
Part 1: The Problem
Choose a strategic-level homeland security problem. This should be a problem facing the
United States (you are not trying to solve another country’s problems). This can be in the area
of counterterrorism, emergency management, critical infrastructure protection, border
security, public health, or any other area within the homeland security enterprise. Please send
me an email to discuss the problem you would like to choose so that I can either suggest
revisions or approve your topic.
Part 2: Choose Your Country
You should conduct some initial research in order to determine which country appears to have
a solution of some kind to the US problem you have identified in Part 1. Bear in mind that your
research will be hampered by two primary issues:
1. In many cases there will not be enough information available on the Internet or through
other open sources to be of use in determining how another country attempts to
address the homeland security problem that you have identified. This will be
particularly true if you choose a sensitive topic. If you hope to find credible open-source
information (Wikipedia is not a credible source) on how France gathers intelligence on
domestic threats….good luck. That sort of thing is not available.
2. There will be a language barrier if you choose a non-English speaking country (unless, of
course, you are fluent in other languages). Some countries, like Germany, translate
some of their policy documents into English but, in general, it is hard to study another
country without the language skills. Google Translate is amazing and can help you get a
general sense of what a document in a language that is foreign to you addresses, but it
is hard to use to get specifics because it makes a total mess of grammar, sentence
structure, and often mistranslates specific words that have more than one meaning.
How do you address these problems? You need to do what every researcher does and go
where you can find the information (and in a language you understand). This means that you
need to be able to be nimble and change your topic or focus as needed.
Part 3: Conduct a Comparative Analysis
After describing your US homeland security problem and describing how another country
addresses that problem, conduct an analysis in which you determine which elements of that
country’s policies can be applied in the US to solve the problem that you have identified. Since
the various democratic countries have very different political systems, laws, institutions and
agencies, ways of doing business, and cultures (not least in terms of what the population is
willing to accept), this means that there is really no way to just adopt another country’s
strategic-level policy and just pop it into place in the US. Consequently, the trick is to
determine how much of that foreign strategy can be applied in the US given our political system
(including federalism), our laws, institutions, ways of doing business, and culture. The
Canadians, for example, may be able to solve problems with a national police force (The Royal
Canadian Mounted Police – RCMP) but that would never fly in the US due to the 10th
Amendment of the Constitution and the brand of federalism practiced in the US).
Part 4: Policy Recommendations
After identifying the US problem, describing how another country deals successfully with the
same or a similar problem, and analyzing how much of that country’s strategy can be applied in
the US, you should then provide a list of policy recommendations that are based on your
determination as to which policies can be adopted in the US (given our system). In other
words, your policy recommendations will be the product of your comparative analysis as to
which elements of another country’s policies are applicable in the US.
Executive Summary
An executive summary is not an abstract and it is not an introduction to a topic. The executive
summary is the 1-2 page document that the really important people in government may take
the time to read (good luck getting them to read the 10-12 page policy memo….that’s usually
read by their staffers). Since the “principals” as they are known, do not have the time or
inclination to read long papers, you need to ensure that your executive summary includes all
the main elements of the memo, but in a very succinct form (bullet points are fine).
Consequently, the executive summary should include:
1. A brief statement of the US problem.
2. A brief description as to how this problem is dealt with by the country you have chosen.
3. A set of policy recommendations (based on your comparative analysis as to which
elements of the foreign country’s policies can be applied in the US).
If you are a visual learner, the slides below lay out the process visually.
Global Perspectives in Homeland Security
