Fluent Essays

Cautionary Notes: Any sensitive aspects of the topic or issue that may affect a person or an organization in a negative way Policy Briefing Memo Assignment Instructions Overview Researching, writing, and synthesizing information accurately is important in most successful careers. In the geopolitical realm, such abilities are vital. This is an opportunity to start building or sharpen those skills and construct the basis for a future crucial professional capability. The more experience one has in performing such tasks, the more efficient and competent they will be in dealing with them later. Fundamentally, the clearer the ideas are written, the less room there is for ambiguous interpretation, and the message can be sent more effectively. This will make a great difference in future professional endeavors, especially in a high- stakes environment. Instructions You will write a Policy Briefing Memo Assignment that is a summary and analysis of facts pertaining to an issue and includes a suggested course of action. You will select your topic from the Friedman book. The paper will consist of a statement and information as outlined in the list below. The intent of this memo is to inform another individual who may have solicited assistance to study and make recommendations on a particular matter. For example, a legislative aide may provide a briefing paper to a congressman or senator for a committee meeting. As the term suggests, briefing papers are short and succinct. Usually written in outline format, a briefing paper must be 1 – 3 pages. Your briefing paper must: provide a summary of an issue; explain a situation that needs correcting; identify any political, cultural, social, and/or financial implications; and recommend a course of action including arguments for and against the suggested action. · Length of assignment: 3 pages (not counting title page and bibliography) · Format of assignment: 12-point Times New Roman font, be double-spaced, and use 1-inch margins · Number of citations: 5 – 6 references to the book · Acceptable sources: the Friedman book, scholarly resources · Analysis: At least 7 geopolitically relevant points Components of a typical briefing paper: · Name: A note to identify to whom the briefing paper is intended. · Date: The date of preparation of the briefing paper. · Subject: The topic or issue of the briefing paper. · Background: A summary of past and/or current events that provide a context for the topic or issue, including any policies or past practices. · Analysis: Identification of significant aspects of the topic or issue, the options or courses of action that should be considered (including details about the advantages and disadvantages of each), and actions currently taken or recommended to address the issue. · Cautionary Notes: Any sensitive aspects of the topic or issue that may affect a person or an organization in a negative way. · Contact: The name and contact information of the writer of the briefing paper. See the Policy Briefing Memo Grading Rubric for specific guidelines and grading procedures. Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool. Page 2 of 2 Middle Eastern Israel and 21st Century Challenges Hi, my name is Sean acres. I'm the Dean of the School of Government and I want to take just a few moments to visit with you about the importance of the State of Israel from a geopolitical sense. In fact, let's back up for just a moment and look at several of the ways that the state of Israel is important to the United States. The study of diplomacy and the study of politics in the modern era. To begin with, let's start with this. The State of Israel is the birthplace for both Judaism and Christianity. So, when we talk about things like the Judeo-Christian worldview, and we reference things like the founders of the United States saying that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. And they say that these rights flow from the laws of nature and nature's God. It's a little bit short sided to miss the fact that those ideas trace not back just to Europe, but through England, through Europe, directly back to Jerusalem. So, in a very real sense, the State of Israel and the state in the United States are linked together ideologically in a worldview that has spanned some 2000 years and made its way into the ideas and thinking of, of legal and political thinkers like William Blackstone and then into the thinking of the American founder. That's very much the basis of the American legal, governmental, and political systems. Now, when we look at our shared current relationship with the state of Israel, it's very important to recognize that you're talking about a landmass not much bigger than the state of New Jersey. But out of that single landmass has come a variety of world-changing technologies. Most of us can think Israel for the computers that sit on our desk, the cell phones that we hold in our hands, many of the medical devices that are doctors used to keep us healthy. In fact, some of the things that we study here at the helm School of Government are some of the great thinkers and some of the great technologies that have come out of Israel. We recently have been visited by the Dov kid draw on the founder of ORM Ed pharmaceuticals. His company out of the State of Israel is following a long lineage of into actual and technological breakthroughs by producing an oral delivery system for insulin. This follows in the shoes of people like Shi'a Gazi in the State of Israel who is working to meet the energy crisis by providing electric cars. And for others like spot shock head, who took his military training and in the IDF and used it to revolutionize the way that companies like PayPal look at their, their debt risks with the people that they do business with. When we look at the current state of global economics, you see that while most of the globe is undergoing a downward trend, the Israeli economy is one of the ones that's burgeoning. It's one of the ones that still on the basis of technology and innovation. Even though there are very few natural resources in the area, the State of Israel still tends to show strong economic growth at a time. Others are having great economic problems. And then there's a third aspect, and this is where it becomes very important for us geopolitically, is that while we share this, this background with the State of Israel, we share this worldview and this ideology with the State of Israel. One of the other things that we share as more unfortunate, and that is because of this ideology, because of the idea of democracy and the idea of monotheism, the idea that there is a God. And we here at Liberty University are unabashedly Christian in our worldview, we believe that the Lord said, I'll bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And the fact is that there's a corollary to that, and that is that the same individuals and groups that, that hate Israel internationally tend to also hate the United States internationally for the same reason. So, while our, our, our backgrounds, our ideological foundations are linked, our business minds are linked. So too, are those that would oppose both the United States, the State of Israel. This is a very important understanding because that means that when the United States is strong, it creates a stronger Israel. And when the United States is weak, it creates a weaker is real. But the converse of that is also true that a strong Israel is something that has been conducive to a strong United States and a weak Israel has typically been conducive to a weak United States. So, when we see this ideological competition is taking place globally in a very real sense, in a modern global mine, these two destinies are very, very linked. So, as you began to study in your political studies, into policy studies, it's important to keep in mind how interrelated worldviews are. It's also very important, especially when studying the Middle Eastern countries, to realize how important the tribal mindset is versus just the geographic mindset that we tend to hold in the United States and the United States, we tend to think along the lines of geographic boundaries that were one boundary starts, another starts, and that creates identity. In the Middle East. This is very much more a tribal thing then a line in the sand. When we understand that it's much easier to understand how changes in the State of Israel can affect the world's perceptions of the United States and vice versa. So, for instance, when the dollar is weak in the United States and the United States is less able to stand on principle because of its pragmatic concerns. The State of Israel becomes less secure. When terrorism and Israel goes unanswered, the United States finds itself less secure. The interplay between this battle of ideologies is one that is of utmost importance in understanding geopolitics. Thank you for taking the time to join us. I hope that you will take a large portion of your studies and look into the United States relationship with the state of Israel and how that dynamic interplay runs back both through the past, the present, and into the future. Again, I'm Sean acres, Dean of the School of Government. I thank you for joining me.