Each presidential election, The Washington Institute convenes a Presidential Study Group to examine the state of the Middle East and to offer advice on Mideast policymaking. In 2009, the President’s Task Force on Confronting the Ideology of Radical Extremism issued a report with its recommendation for dealing with radical extremism in the world.
The report can be accessed here:
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PTF2-Counterradicalization.pdf
On pages 13-18 of their report is a list of 24 “Strategic Recommendations” that the task force made to the President that they believed would improve the existing policy on this issue (radicalization).
The following is a list of those recommendations:
Expand focus from violent to nonviolent extremism.
Rejuvenate efforts to promote prosperity, reform, and democracy in Arab countries.
Empower mainstream Muslim voices.
Address local grievances, not only global ones.
Delink democracy promotion from counterterrorism policy.
Make economic reform a higher priority while pressing for political reform, including human rights.
Link U.S. assistance to ending corruption in the region.
Challenge the social-service, grassroots recruitment tactic.
Boost democrat assistance to level the playing field.
Concentrate on stimulating the development of free media.
Reorient public diplomacy to support our allies efforts.
Go beyond the American brand.
Identify and network opinion leaders as allies.
Highlight diverse voices, from secular to religious.
Prioritize political engagement.
Portray the al-Qaeda threat realistically and emphasize the groups bankrupt ideology.
Identify credible voices to exploit fissures.
Employ nuanced, non-combative rhetoric.
Challenge extremists in cyberspace.
Coordinate counter-radicalization programs.
Create a counter-radicalization Forum.
Improve domestic counter-radicalization efforts.
Utilize best practices from abroad.
Broaden Muslim outreach.
For this assignment, students will read the details of each of the 24 “strategic recommendations” (pages 13-18) made by the President’s Task Force on Confronting the Ideology of Radical Extremism.
In a well-written three-page review:
· Prepare a brief synopsis of each of the task force’s recommendations and then compare THREE (student’s choice) of those recommendations with the de-radicalization ideas discussed in this week’s reading assignment. Keeping in mind it’s been 8 years since this report, has the world made any progress? Why or why not?
· Make sure your discussion reflects themes in Chapters 11 through 12 of our textbook.
Your paper must:
· The first page of your paper will be a cover sheet correctly formatted according to APA guidelines.
· The second page will include an Abstract.
· This paper will use 1-inch margins, Times New Roman 12-point font, and double spacing.
· A minimum of three citations must be included and the citations for each article MUST be correctly formatted according to APA guidelines. Do NOT use an automated citation manager to perform this function. Do it manually for this assignment and check your formatting against available APA resources.
o Excluding the cover page, the Abstract and references page, this paper must be at least 3 pages of written text.
Only COMPLETE paragraphs consisting of an introductory sentence, a full explanation of key points supported with properly cited sources, and a concluding sentence may be used.
§ Only use published articles from academic texts, such as those found at scholar.google.com
§ The entire paper must be your original work. It may not include quotes and at no time should text be copied and pasted.
· This paper DOES require an introductory paragraph, explicit thesis statement, concluding paragraph, and references page.
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