Instructions for M3 assignment

For the Project Step 1 assignment, please submit brief topic description for your research project, i.e. the Memo to the President. It should be several paragraphs long containing the following:

• Short overview of the subject
• Explain the research question you would like to address
• Outline your argument, i.e your policy recommendation

Please submit your assignment as a Word document to Canvas.

Choose one of the following topics:

• Nuclear proliferation, i.e. more and more countries getting nuclear weapons
• Climate change/global warming/environmental issues
• Global Human Rights
• The migrant crisis
• The rise of China
• Russia’s foreign policy
• The Palestinian-Israeli conflict
• Concept of Jus ad bellus (Just war) pertaining to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Sample Topic choice

Empowering Sexual Minorities in Post-Authoritarian Tunisia and Lebanon: Youth, Art and Political Rights

This Memo explores the political voice of sexual minorities in post-conflict and post-authoritarian contexts. It focuses on the role of social media and collective action with regards to lesbian gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism in Tunisia and Lebanon. Regardless of the international support of LGBT rights, Tunisia’s legislators have yet to decriminalize sodomy laws in place since 1964. Instead, repression of this minority in society has risen since Ben Ali’s ouster. In Lebanon, on the contrary, the legal ban on same-sex sexual activity has been lifted in 2014. Despite the Lebanese legal breakthrough, conditions in both cases are fragile and precarious. LGBT advocacy networks push for social recognition and are part of a broader youth activism movement to shape transitions in the post-Arab Spring era.

Given the repressive politics in Tunisia and Lebanon, the Memo explores the question of why difficulties persist and how youth, particularly the LGBT community, could counter and prevent recurring patterns of violence.

This Memo recommends that the President support youth activists and art more directly in its Middle East foreign policy strategy. It maps different types of activities to illustrate how art has served as a medium to create innovative spaces of deliberation for these youth. In addition, the Memo explores the impact of collective action from within the community to prevent the recurring violence and best practices on how to effectively educate society. The author argues, however, that the creation of this new fragile spatiality is challenged by several factors, including narratives and memories of secularist and Islamist traditions.