President’s Daily Briefing (PDF)

Peer Daily Briefing (PWB)

This is a modification of the U.S. “President’s Daily Briefing” (PDF) that the president of the United States receives each day. For our purposes it is to gather and share observations based on weekly globally security events that may reflect terrorist actions and Homeland Security policies of the U.S. It can also provide ideas for your Final Paper. For a little history see https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-history/presidents-daily-brief/PDB_Kennedy_and_Johnson_public16Sep2015.pdf.

By Friday midnight of each week, you will deliver a one page weekly assessment of three (3) world events using national and international news sources (The Economist, BBC, Daily Beast, etc.) for that week’s time period (starting Sunday of that week). Your focus is to be based on your any of the stated topics in this syllabus and “COURSE OUTCOMES”. Your work may also be used for future (TBD) discussion questions and will be a compilation of your “discussion” grade.

1. Cite your three (3) news sources and provide a synopsis (100 word minimum, double space),
2. Take one of the articles and write an analysis of your perception of the situation (use “Analysis” as your heading after you initial description of the article). Along with your “COURSE COUTCOMES, think of issues such as: Does it threaten U.S. interests, allies? Is this a terrorist concern relevant to the region? What is the article not telling you? Who’s job in Washington does it affect – State Department, Pentagon, the Justice Department, etc.? There is no right answer as much as there is “did you engage the assignment beyond the obvious and superficial news headlines”.

This exercise is to get you to be familiar with world events and be able to make quick assessments of situations on a daily basis. It will start getting you familiar with global events and build your world knowledge. This is the only time grammar rules will not be so strict but spelling mistakes are inexcusable due to today’s technology.

This is a college course, thus making you Professional Academics. Therefore, I will hold you to college and professional standards. I want you to think, assess, interpret, and make logical arguments. If you provide quotes from other people/authors, explain it clearly and build on it with your own thoughts. I want to know how you reachyour conclusions and how you think about the subject.  Quotes serve a purpose but they should not speak for you. Ideally, your thought development may reflect a quote but do not take a quote and try to build your thoughts on it.