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To: POL245: American Foreign Policy From: Kelsea Albertson, Dan Curran, Talia Guglietta, Samantha Landry, and Kennedy Muise Date: March 17, 2019  RE: Russian Hacking in 2016 US Elections Executive Summary Russian hacks conducted in the US throughout 2016 has caused much concern about cybersecurity issues for the US and other Western democracies. Similarly, it has sparked increased cybersecurity protection mechanisms created by the Department of Homeland Security. According to a report by CNN, US Intelligence Agencies have detected that Russian hackers meddled in the 2016 US presidential election by releasing private DNC documents, infiltrating GOP computers, adding to fake news sources and Pro-Trump propaganda ads on social media platforms, and targeting voting systems in up to 21 states. While the intent of Russian meddling differs amongst sources, the fact that Russia is interfering at all generates a great deal of concern for US security and has prompted b...

To: POL245: American Foreign Policy From: Kelsea Albertson, Dan Curran, Talia Guglietta, Samantha Landry, and Kennedy Muise Date: February 24, 2019  RE: Climate Change and Paris Agreement Executive Summary         The Paris Agreement is an environmental accord created in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts. The purpose of the agreement is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while limiting the increase to 1.5 degrees. The make-up of the agreement requires commitment from the major emitting countries to cut their climate-altering pollution. The pact also requires developed nations to assist developing nations in their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. By doing so, it creates a framework for transparent monitoring, reporting, and ratcheting up of countries’ individual and collective climate goals. Currently,...