Memorandum

DATE:        7 March, 2021

TO:             POL 2082 U.S. Foreign Policy

FROM:        Dr. Ivan Dinev Ivanov

RE:             Guidelines for Writing Action Memos

POL 2082 participants are required to submit an action memorandum of about 1,000-1,200 words due the last week of classes (November 30th, 2017 at 3:30 pm in class). Course participants will need to imagine that they work for the State Department’s Office for Middle Eastern Affairs and their supervisor has asked them to prepare a memo for the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on US Policy in the areas liberated from ISIS. For details on memoranda see: https://fam.state.gov/fam/05fah01/05fah010310.html.

First, summarize the situation on the ground as of November 2017 and outline U.S. position on the post-conflict settlement in Syria. What are the main issues of disagreement between the United States, its allies and other key players in the conflict (e.g. Russia, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others). Second, based on the latest developments in November 2017 outline policy options available to the United States and its partners. Specifically, focus on: (1) issues of ending the civil war; (2) problems of a post-conflict reconstruction in former ISIS strongholds and; (3) options for peace arrangement in the region that include: the type and format of governance in Syria, as well as the future of the current constitutional arrangement in Syria. Make sure to discuss issues on which the United States is willing to compromise or make concessions and issues where such a compromise is unlikely. Lastly, briefly mention recommendations for the Trump administration that includes:

-- possible timeline of conducting negotiations

-- the anticipated response from players in the region, the involvement of Russia and other potential partners in the process

-- role if international institutions (e.g. the UN Security Council, the Arab League, other institutional players in the region, etc.)

Make sure in your answer you address the following issues:

  • What is the desired solution to bring stability and reconstruction to areas in Syria formerly controlled by ISIS? Focus on issue shared government, the future of the Assad regime and other similar issues;
  • How should the U.S. negotiators use coercion (e.g. sticks) and incentives (e.g. carrots) to bring the negotiating parties to the table and to convince them to accept the deal?
  • How would the United States work with Russia, the European Union, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other key players in the region to negotiate peace?

Once you outline the policy options, make sure to briefly mention various scenarios and discuss the pros and cons of each of these scenarios. In conclusion, make sure to reiterate the most feasible policy option/ scenario. Remember: a good memorandum is designed to provide relevant information, analytical assessment, and sensible judgments for those reading the document. The exercise is designed to test not only absorption but practical application of the course material.

Organizing the Presentation

A good policy memo is clear and forthright; keep the main points in focus; strive for conciseness and coherence.  Memo assignments never ask you to feed back everything you know.  Instead, they give you the chance to show that you understand the subject well enough to establish intelligent priorities, to reach reasonable conclusions, and to express them convincingly. The policy analyst must take a large amount of information and, in the face of challenging deadlines, reduce it to its essentials, communicated persuasively. Students need to qualify their thesis or recommendations when necessary, but at all times focus the reader's attention; they need to stick to essential information or arguments. Below are listed some of the recommendation made by Prof. David Dill from UNC Chapel Hill that I find especially useful:

    Be certain that you know what you want to say before you begin to write.  Before you start to write, try to picture how the completed policy memo will look.

    Get right down to business in your introduction.  You will rarely have the luxury of enough space to present elaborate background information or witty and elegant meanderings toward your topic.

    After reading the opening paragraph, your audience should have no doubt concerning what your memo is about.  At the least, your reader will know what problem you are addressing, how you intend to approach it, and what the main considerations are.  Most readers will also appreciate in the memo's opening at least a hint about your conclusions.  The format of a "mystery tale," in which a web of confusing evidence is suddenly untangled in a surprise ending, rarely makes an effective professional memo.

    Organize all information to buttress your argument logically.  Presenting material in the same order in which you thought through the problem is seldom convincing.  Think, instead, of how your organization will affect the reader.

    Stick with the information or analysis useful to your audience.  Compress, subordinate, or cut out anything unnecessary.  If you need to present additional data, for instance, include them in an appendix.

    Be sure to explain and relate graphs, tables, or equations to your argument.   Don't present these materials for their own sake, but only when and in such a way that they advance your position.

    End conclusively.  You must carefully prove what you set out to show so that you fulfill expectations that you have created for your reader. 

Style

Your ideas will be only as meaningful to the reader as you are able to make them.  Whenever possible choose the plainest words that express your subject.  A complicated word is not good if a simpler word will do just as well. Also, make sure you guide your readers through your sentences by fulfilling expectations such as:

  • consistent sentence order -- subject, verb, object;
  • contextual information at the end of your sentences;
  • few, if any, constructions such as "it is" or "there are" which waste the main subject and verb slots on unimportant words;
  • the active voice whenever possible;
  • coherent paragraphs that have a single controlling idea that you make explicit in the first sentence or two;
  • good editing and proofreading;
  • plain English for a non-technical audience. The professional policy analyst writes to communicate clearly, not to hit the reader with sophisticated terminology. Show your grasp of a subject by translating complex terms into clear language;
  • definitions of jargon when such language is essential or expedient to develop an idea;
  • explanations of abbreviations and acronyms the first time you use them;
  • conventional grammar unless a grammatical impropriety is appropriate.

Format

Even an essentially artificial concern such as the appearance of memos will be likely to affect the reader's understanding and evaluation of your ideas.

    Type neatly, double-spaced, on standard typing paper; follow the conventions of memo format; such as headings for sub-sections and bullet points for a list of items.

  • Readers expect you to stay with the limits of length that they specify for an assignment.  A paper that exceeds its assigned length is rarely better for the additional pages.  The paper that runs too long often fails to establish priorities clearly.  Finally, because it sometimes requires more work to keep things short than to leave them long and loose, it may be unfair to others who strive to stay within assigned lengths if your paper exceeds the limits.
  • If you are given a word limit as part of your assignment, be sure to run a word count on your final draft memo before completing it.
  • Feel free to use the information from the attached NY Times articles as needed, as well as other legitimate sources (traditional media outlets) that would inform you work/ document about the U.S. foreign policy position). Cite as needed.