Policy MEMO Homeland Security Assignment
Policy MEMO Homeland Security Assignment
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).
Hello all, please see the link below for guidelines on your draft policy memo and let me know if you have any questions. As a reminder, the memo should have four components:
1. A brief description of the US homeland security problem you are addressing (this needs to be a specific policy problem at the federal, state, or local level, not something vague like: making the homeland more security or enhancing cybersecurity).
2. A description of how the country you are focusing on addresses the same or a similar problem (you should focus on 2-3 strategic-level policies you think the US should adopt).
3. A comparative analysis that determines the barriers to implementing those 2-3 policies practiced by the country you are focusing on in the US (these can be legal, institutional, cultural, or otherwise) and how those barriers might be circumvented (either by modifying the foreign country’s policies or by changing some aspects of US law, institutional structure, etc.).
4. Provide policy recommendations for the US based on the foreign country’s policies that have been modified in order to be applicable in the US.
I’d like to clarify something regarding the policy memo. It is true that the policy memo must include a comparative analysis but, to be clear, the comparative analysis does not mean comparing your country of choice to the US, what it means is determining how 2-3 specific good policies used by that country would need to be translated to actually apply here in the US (since our laws, institutions, and culture, among other things, differ from those of other countries).
In short, please DO NOT compare and contrast another countries policies with those of the US. I’m looking for an analysis as to what can be adopted from another country.
Country to adopt policy and problem: I want to focus my policy memo on our current immigration system and how immigration is a concern for national security. I would like to adopt Norway’s current introduction program which it aims to introduce Norway’s way of life, language, rules, laws and more to immigrants entering Norway. I think a program like theirs would greatly enhance our own immigration policy. from Norway’s current immigration system pick 2 more policies regarding their immigration.
