Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Crisis Briefing

This piece of assessment requires students to identify an existing security ‘crisis’ in world politics, and to provide a briefing document that outlines the nature of the crisis, its urgency, the appropriate response and responders, and why this constitutes a security crisis. This briefing, similar to reports developed by organisations such as the International Crisis Group, should clearly target relevant stakeholders to articulate a clear and compelling case for action in response to an ongoing security crisis. Students must prepare their briefing in accordance with a teacher-provided template and strict word limits for each section of the briefing. The briefing must address:

1. What is the issue (no more than 100 words): what is the crisis?
2. Why is this urgent (no more than 100 words): why does this issue require the immediate attention of particular stakeholders (whether national decision-makers or the international community more broadly)?
3. Who should act (no more than 100 words): which actors specifically are you calling on to respond to this crisis?
4. What should be done (no more than 100 words): what exactly are you asking the above actors to do?
5. How is this a ‘security’ crisis (no more than 100 words): make it clear how this connects to the course content by being clear about why this can be viewed as an issue of security.
6. Overview (no more than 500 words): this is your opportunity to outline all of the above at length, giving more background and detail to areas of the briefing that might have been missed in the briefer summary at the start.

This briefing should be set in the present, be written within the template and must not contain any in-text references. It should be no more than 1000 words or two pages in length. A separate bibliography (not included in the word count) is to be provided.