How to Write a Briefing Document Essay Example for Free

How to Write a Briefing Document Essay The policy briefs you will write will be aimed at a particular audience, and should represent that audiences perspective and reflect its interests. Content The brief should accomplish the following: †¢ Identify the problem and convince the audience of the importance of addressing it. From their perspective, what is important and what is not important? Highlight what aspects of the status quo are relevant to the problem. This should include a full treatment of any underlying technical issues. Identify a solution. This solution should include some course of action to be taken by your audience. Doing nothing is a sometimes valid course of action. Guidelines †¢ †¢ †¢ Tie the audiences interests to the means and the end. Identify other solutions and point out why the proposed solution is better for the audience (if it is useful or relevant). Discuss your solution’s feasibility and the initial steps that can be taken, as well as obstacles to its implementation. You are encouraged to explore a wide range of solutions. Think about technology (including changing infrastructure or client-side capabilities), government regulations (including direct mandates, incentives or changes in liability), and market tools (including new markets or marketing campaigns to realign incentives). Addressing your audiences needs is as important as solving the larger problem. You should understand what it is they hope to accomplish, and what tradeoffs they would be willing to make. Attributes of a successful briefing memo †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Short: Your audience will not have an attention span for a long document. Succinct: Be brief and clear; avoid empty rhetoric and sweeping generalizations. (Such as this.) Persuasive: You are aiming to convince your audience on the best course of action. Evidence-based: Cite specifics, and use empirical data wherever possible. Accessible: Incorporate critical technical facts and trends without jargon, in a fashion understandable to a non-technical audience. Realistic: Be careful with the assumptions you make. State the important ones.

The Awakening :: essays research papers

The short novel, The Awakening, begins at a crisis in Edna Pontellier's life. Edna is a free-spirited and passionate woman who has a hard time finding means of communications and a real role as a wife and a mother. Edna finds herself desperately wanting her own emotional and sexual identities. During one summer while her husband, Leonce, is out of town on business, her frustration and need for emotional freedom leads to an affair with a younger man. Her search for identity and love leads her on a wild ride against society and tests her strengths to the end. The book raises issues about the role of women in society, not only in the time period in which it is set, but also in the modern world. Edna was truly brave in the way that she slowly began to defy society's conventions. She was never unfaithful to her husband because he had betrayed her by seeing her as an object. This contributed to her yearning for truth and freedom. Her husband was a well-meaning man, but Edna had no real trust in him. She felt empty with him and their children. Once Leonce was gone and Edna had been with Robert, she felt like she had found true and passionate love, but she had not. Robert was like Leonce. Robert speaks of her being "set free and given to her" and she realizes that Robert also viewed women as possessions. This was a trouble that she could not get away from. Robert loved her, but the way that he thought was still being controlled by the society and time that they lived in. Edna realizes that her loving and lusty relationship with R obert would still be repressed by the society that they were in. That is not what Edna wanted. She could not hold back her feelings and continue living the way that she was. Edna did not want to live a life that would have her lying to her children, and raising them would have been painful to her without truth. She felt that if she were to follow through with being with Robert, she would be taking away their expression and personal freedom. Edna was a very strong woman in the light that she did not want to give herself away. She strove to be an independent and self-sufficient individual. In the time period which Edna was in, women had few choices in the case of divorce, and men took the sole custody of their children.

Civil Liberties vs National Security

In U. S. , the bill of rights protects civil liberties. People in the United States, hold civil rights, which are those privileges, immunities and rights held by all Americans and political rights, which are the rights that are restricted to those who are entitled to participate in elections, as candidates or voters. The distinction is important since not all are eligible to vote though they all should enjoy their freedoms. This may no longer be feasible as majority of the civil rights are taken to include the political rghts in this age. National security can be defined as a country's need to maintain its survival by use of military, political and economic power for diplomacy. Civil liberty are freedoms and rights exercised by individuals in any country provided by their country's legislation or international laws, for example the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, the right to privacy, the right to security and liberty and many more. National security issues arose after the second world war in the united states of America with initial emphasis on the military. For any country in this day and age, national security encompasses energy security, economic security, environmental security and many more. Security threats range not only from external states but also from illegal drug cartels, multi-national organizations and terrorists groups. The civil liberty concepts are protected under a country's constitution, bill of rights. Other legal legislation are also adopted by country's to uphold this civil liberties by giving effect to international laws passed in conventions such as the International Covenant and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. The protection of civil rights is deemed as the responsibility of a country's people and government. The extent of some civil liberties, such as reproductive rights, property rights and several others are subject of debate. The debate of whether or not civil liberties should or can be infringed to ensure national security has been subject to never ending debate. The extent to which civil liberties can be altered and, or suspended with respect to the security of a nations interests calls for a reat deal of care in striking the correct balance. Posner (2001) disputes the ideology of civil libertarians that national security will lead to an erosion of civil liberties. He proposes that the basic mistake is the prioritizing of liberty and is both a mistake about history as well as law when it comes to striking the needed balance between civil freedoms and national security. In his view, under law, these civil rights can rarely be altered to suit the time within which they exist to uphold the same rights as before. Cole (2002), in contrast states that the nation's response to national security threats has time and again infringed civil rights. The Supreme Court of the United State's in tandem acknowledges that, â€Å"History abundantly documents the tendency of Government, however benevolent and benign its motives -to view with suspicion those who most fervently dispute its policies. † that said, this is not a problem that is unique to the United States, but the constitutional structures, political will and religious structures do not protect the people's rights. He further points out that our governments subvert the freedoms that constitute the defense in the well being of a nation. Glenn Greenwald talks of the misconception of combating terror in the name of national security while upholding civil liberties. He emphasis that the meaning of this civil rights has been distorted and often misunderstood due to the description of combating terrorism to preserve national security. The meaning of terrorism has been built on the notion that, if one was not on our side then they were definitely against us. This has grown fear within people that infringe on basic human rights e. g of residence, movement, expression, association and many more. The misinterpretation of upholding national security ends up marginalizing and curtailing the freedoms of some of the patriotic residents who may be involved directly or indirectly with particular religions and groups seen as potential threats. The F. B. I, has significant legal powers, excellent resources, and a jurisdiction that has overseas coverage. They have in recent years penetrated and prosecuted many organized criminal gangs, uncovered public corruption and successfully caught up with terror attacks. Still the same F. B. I has curtailed the basic freedoms of association, speech e. t. c The bureau while protecting their national security freedoms has infringed the human rights by disrupting and neutralizing peaceful protests. It has more so focused its resources on neutralizing and curbing political activity other than investigate criminal activities. The force, does not have accountability to the the public while incriminates on the basis of association instead of relying hard facts and evidence to get hold of the real criminals. The adoption of legislation such as the Anti-terrorism Act (1996), is a good indicator of past injustices and the unrestricted investigations by the bureau based on political agendas. The Act's deliberate criminalization of peaceful activity gave the F. B. I. leverage to involve itself in the religious, ethnic and political grouping involving themselves in peaceful and humanitarian work. Afterwards, it grew to encourage politically motivated investigations. The deportation and exclusion of immigrants on the basis of guilt of association completely discredits the protection of the civil rights. Other legislations such as the enactment of the secret evidence against alleged terrorists infringed on their basic freedoms e. g the right to confront one's accusers. For any society, political freedom is key, thus allowing peaceful ways to express their dissatisfaction which in turn initiates social change. Civil rights have been infringed since the legal regime established under Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower who facilitated the worst abuses in the FBI's history, and eventually led to reforms. The FBI under new and better legislation undertook an intensive campaign with the aim of capturing suspected Communists,. The committees that were set up drew up lists and constructed links among organizations. They were confronted with incriminating evidence with no room for self defense and compelling testimonies from individuals who lost their jobs if they did not agree to testify, and to some extent were locked up. Posner insists that these freedom should be curtailed up to the point where the benefits outweigh the costs of reduced liberty. In all this, legislation ought to be responsible as well as the officials so that they maintain the balance between the civil liberties and national security. History depicts officials generally exaggerate the dangers to the country's security which is not entirely true. Officials tasked with the responsibility to estimate the occurrences and magnitude of these dangers failed, thus led to the occurrences e. the civil war of Japan on the U. S that led to the distraction at Pearl Harbor,of Soviet espionage in the 1940s, the September 11 attacks and many more. The Government in times of crisis, will exercise its power to conduct a comprehensive domestic intelligence. The difference between legal dissent and criminal conduct is often forgotten. The work of the church, is to recommend means to make sure that the distinction will always be observed. The unfortunate bit arises when, you incompatible and outdated ways to deal with issues that threaten your national security. Legislations that deem an individual guilty by association of group, color, race, religion should be put aside to ensure that the fundamental rights of each human being are respected and up held. In the ongoing balancing debate between civil liberties and national security is never ending. However, the constitution has an already balanced point between personal freedoms and government power. Hence the curtailing of individual rights is a personal decision or the government's irresponsibility with the power vested in it by the same people it ought to protect. Anti-terrorism can be used as a measure to the extent of infringing right. Despite the intense war to eradicate terrorism everywhere, the terrorist threat in reality cannot be eliminated. We need to come up with very good responses. However, this should be careful planned out and executed to avoid sacrificing the fundamental principles that constitute our democratic identity. Otherwise, it is best is to follow our liberal principles, to use the set criminal laws to punish and prosecute those who plan or carry out violent deeds and encourage critics of our government into the practice of tolerance and democracy.

Global Trade Overview On The United States - 1105 Words

4. GLOBAL TRADE OVERVIEW Trading Partners of NAFTA: Canada: Canada’s prosperity is built on it easy access to foreign trade and investment. The North American partnership is undoubtedly a significant competitive advantage for Canada. to help Canadian business opportunities all across the world, Canada is using this platform as a entry. The United States: The most diversified economy in the world. It’s is a market economy where businesses are leading in high-tech sectors and the manufacturing, namely computers, and aerospace, and in services, including agricultural, financial services and telecommunications, etc. Mexico: Trade modernized Mexico’s†¦show more content†¦Government Procurement: The provisions under NAFTA applied to the procurement of goods services.US suppliers were allowed some rights to bid on contract to provide maximum supply to Mexico Canada entities which ended up with rise in US export to Canada Mexico in sectors like construction, environmental communication, pharmaceuticals, electronic. IPR :( Intellectual Property Rights): NAFTA recognized the importance of protection of Intellectual property, where NAFTA had signed an agreement around years before the WTO agreement –â€Å"Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights†(TRIPS) which protects the various kind of Intellectual property like Patent, Copyrights, Goodwill, Trademark, etc. Some of the Weaknesses/Dis advantages of NAFT: US jobs were Lost: As labor cost is cheapest in Mexico as manufacturing was moved from USA to Mexico. Around 80% of job losses are in Manufacturing. Specially Michigan, Texas, New York California were hilted the most as many of the industries were moved from these cities to Mexico.Indusries involved Computers. Textile Motors Vehicles, etc. (Source: Economic Policy Institute â€Å"The High Cost Of Free Trade†.) Mexico farmers were put out of Business: Mexico, near about 1.3 million jobs was lost. In the year of 2002 farm bill financed US agri-business by 40% of net income. The moment NAFTA eliminated tariff duty on