Assignment Instructions

In this assignment you are asked to produce a 10-page minimum Powerpoint presentation that presents and details a recommendation for a covert action program. Each slide must have a title, a page number, and information must be presented in bullet form. You are permitted to add graphs, images, and maps as necessary to make your point.

You are to take a real-world problem that exists today and play the role of a CIA/Directorate of Operations officer making a recommendation to initiate a covert action program. The slides need to include:

1) Background and definition of the problem, including a statement of proposed US policy (if one does not already exist)

2) Description of purpose, mission, and end-state you expect your covert action program to achieve

3) Detail the elements of your proposed covert action program. The covert action program must include political action, propaganda, economic, and social/civil action and may also include paramilitary action as the problem requires.

4) Each element of the covert action program should be detailed specifically with goals and methods

5) You must provide a risk analysis that includes potential unintended consequences, potential blow back from exposure, and long-term political and security risks.

6) The justification should include why neither diplomacy nor open war offers a reasonable probability for achieving the stated policy objectives (listed above in number 1)

7) A final assessment of risk-reward and the ethical basis for such a judgment (why is this the "right" covert action program for the circumstances).

8) A list of open sources you used for research into US policy, alternative US courses of action, and the conditions on the ground that the covert action is trying to coerce or manipulate