Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya

Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy

The Raphael Recanati International School

Course Number 4732

Diplomacy Government and Law in a Global World

Final Assignment – Spring 2020-2021

Adv. Gil Avriel

Guidelines:

1. This assignment has three questions.

2. You are required to answer all three questions.

3. Distribution of grades: question one – 30%; question two – 40%; question three – 30%.

4. The final assignment should not exceed the length of five pages.

5. The final assignment will be presented in Time New Roman font size 12, aligned to both sides,

1.5 lines spacing, and 2 cm of each page margins. Pages should be numbered. Your answer should

be written using the “Answering Form” (enclosed below).

6. Important terms should be highlighted in bold + underlined.

7. Names of case studies discussed in class should be written in bold+ italics +underlined.

8. Please submit your final assignment in the form of WORD file, via the Moodle system only

Please save your WORD file under the following name: “Final assignment of (full name of student)

“Diplomacy Government and Law in a Global World (2020)”. Please leave the feedback form blank

right after the last sentence of your last answer.

9. Assignment is due via the Moodle system only no later than 31 of August 2020.

10. Extension will be granted via mail only upon request of the student.

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QUESTIONS

1. Question Number One:

(30 points).

A. Name of Case Study: “If You Want to Shoot, Shoot” – Obama’s “Red Line” That Wasn’t

(on Syria).

B. There are four mandatory materials for question number one:

1) The case study – An article from the Atlantic: “The Obama Doctrine – The U.S.

President Talks Through His Hardest Decisions About America’s Role in The World”

You are only required to read pages 1-18. (Attached + can be found on course Website”).

For those who choose to read it online can find the article here. You should read only

until the sentence “once mentioned to Obama a scene from The Godfather.”

2) YouTube clip titled “Obama’s “Red Line” That Wasn’t” from The Atlantic, can be

found here.

3) YouTube clip titled “The President Blinked”: Why Obama Changed Course on Syria

from the Frontline T.V show, can be found here.

4) The chart “What is the Problem”

C. The Question

It is August 2013 and you are a senior member of the US National Security Council at the White

House. The National Security Adviser (A.K.A your boss) informs you that nine days earlier in

Damascus, Assad’s army had murdered more than 1,400 civilians with sarin gas (a breach of

international law). He adds that “President Obama wants to see both of us in the oval office later

today in to discuss the situation.” You are told that in that meeting the President would like

you to answer only one question: what are the problems in this case study? The National Security

Adviser reminds you that the President himself is a graduate of the course Diplomacy

Government and Law in a Global World, and he is using the chart “What is the Problem” in

to analyze complex problems.

Based on the information provided to you in the case study, please select 10 items from the chart

“What is The Problem”. Items should be highlighted in bold + underlined. Regarding each item

please explain the problem that President Obama faces, using examples from this case study.

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2. Question Number Two:

(40 points)

Selected Case Studies:

“Kill or Heal”

The Deadly Choices of Dr. Anna Pou in Memorial Medical

Center New Orleans during

Hurricane Katrina

“It’s a Sensitive Investigation!”

Louis Freeh Director of the FBI

investigation of the Khobar

Towers terrorist bombing in

Saudi Arabia.

“Am I Part of the Cure or Part

of the Disease?” Jesselyn Radack Dilemma

relating to the court case of

John Walker Lindh (the

American Taliban)

Former Acting Attorney General

Sally Yates speaks on her decision

not to defend the President

executive on travel ban

In the course Diplomacy Government and Law in a Global World we discussed several case studies

and analyzed the decision-making process of different characters. All the case studies are available

on the course website.

In the case study “Deadly Choices: Kill or Heal” we followed the deadly choices of Dr. Anna Pou

at Memorial Medical Center New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and discussed her actions in the

context of the Hippocratic oath of ethics taken by physicians. We also looked at contemporary

challenges faced by physicians in hospitals across the world during the Covid-19 pandemic and

focused on their heroic struggle to provide medical relief in spite of the limited resources.

In the case study “It’s a Sensitive Investigation!” we reviewed the challenges faced by Louis Freeh,

the Director of the FBI, during the investigation of the Khobar Towers terrorist bombing in Saudi

Arabia. We noticed how issues such as diplomacy, foreign affairs and Louis Freeh’s complex relations

with President Clinton interfered with his goal to peruse justice for the victims of terrorism. We also

discussed the values of public leadership and the meaning of professionalism.

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In the case study “Am I Part of the Cure or Part of the Disease?” we followed the ethical dilemma

of Jesselyn Radack, an attorney-adviser with the U.S Department of Justice Professional

Responsibility Advisory Office who believed that the US government was lying in court, and in

public, about the case of John Walker Lindh (American citizen captured while fighting alongside the

Taliban in Afghanistan in the months that followed 9/11 and brought to justice in the United States).

In part II of the case study we followed her intensive relationship with her boss at the office and the

course of action she took in to address the challenge.

In the case study “Should I Stand or Should I Go Now?” we discussed different elements of former

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates speech at Harvard Law School about her decision not to defend

the President executive on travel ban in the context of questions of leadership, ethics, values

and professional integrity.

A. The Question

This question has two parts:

Part A: Please select one of these case studies and explain what was the leadership challenge and the

ethical dilemma that the main character faced. Do you think the character demonstrated strong

leadership? Based on your judgement, did the main character understand the ethical dilemma well?

Explain.

Part B: Please read the following article “What to Do When Your Job Interferes with Your

Integrity” by Kitty Boitnott. The article is available here. Please review the following statement from

the article:

What is “integrity?” …when you feel that you are fully integrated with your words

and your actions. You don’t operate on the “do as I say and not as I do,” principle.

Your words have meaning, and your actions are in alignment with your words.

People see you as someone they can trust. They depend upon your stability and

your ability to see clearly the difference between right and wrong. “You are in

integrity with yourself when you can sleep at night with a clear conscience. When

you can look yourself in the mirror because you are honest and trustworthy, you

are in integrity”

Please select one of the case studies mentioned above and explain why this statement is relevant to

the main character in the case study you selected. In light of this statement, do you think that the main

character acted in full integrity? Explain.

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3. Question Number Three:

(30 points)

The Question

Please read the following article “Crisis Management for Leaders Coping with COVID-19” written

by three professors from Harvard Program on Crisis Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of

Government.1The article can be found here.

According to the article, every significant emergency event is a fountain of issues, competing

priorities, questions, decisions, and tasks. Leading through an emergency event requires that the

issues be identified, the priorities clarified, the questions framed, the decisions made, and the

associated tasks directed and then carried out.

Based on the first part of this article, please explain why the professors from Harvard Program on

Crisis Leadership think that the leadership challenge that leaders face during the COVID 19 crisis is

so profoundly different than other emergency situations.

End of questions. Please use the “Answering Form” on the next page to answer the three

questions. The answering form in the form of a WORD File can be found in the course website. Your

answer should not exceed the total length of five pages. (please leave the feedback form blank right after

the last sentence of your last answer)

1 Herman B. “Dutch” Leonard, Arnold M. Howitt, and David W. Giles. 2020. “Crisis Communications for

COVID-19” (Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School, April 2020).

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ANSWERING FORM

Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya

Diplomacy Government and Law in a Global World

(Course Number 4732 Adv. Gil Avriel – Spring 2020-2021)

1. Answer to question number one:

2. Answer to question number two:

3. Answer to question number three:

—————————————————————————-

Assignment Feedback (please leave this feedback form blank for me right after the last sentence of

your last answe

Name of Student: (to be filled by the student)

Student Id. to be filled by the student

FEEDBACK ON FINAL ASSIGNMENT:

Parameters Assessment Parameters Assessment Parameters Assessment

Structure Relevant case studies Overall quality of answers

Methodology Implementing class discussion Overall quality of arguments

Clarity Proper and relevant examples Overall style

Flow Analysis of case study Overall sensitivity to ethics

Consistency Analysis of complexities Personal added value

Sharpness Analysis of conclusions Overall dealing with

complexities

GRADING SYSTEM: GENERAL EXPLENATION YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Tiers Verbal In Numbers Which Tier

Tier 1 Excellent 96-100 Within the Tier

Tier 2 Very good 95-86

Tier 3 Good 85-76 Assignment grade and final course grade:

Tier 5 Fair 75-66

Tier 5 Pass 60-65

Tier 6 Not Pass Below 60