Policy workshops provide students with an opportunity to use the analytical skills they acquired in the first year of the program to analyze complex and challenging policy issues, usually for real-world clients.

The goal of the workshops is to understand a policy issue in great depth and to make policy recommendations that are both creative and realistic, given the relevant institutional and political constraints. Each workshop consists of eight to 10 students who work in teams to evaluate a policy challenge.

Most students engage in field research during the fall break period. Each workshop produces a final report and gives a presentation to the client, typically by the end of the fall semester.

During the fall 2020 semester, graduate students studied the following topics:

Ensuring Equity in Transit-Oriented Development: A Blueprint for State-level Reform in New Jersey
David N. Kinsey, Visiting Lecturer in Public and International Affairs

Behavioral Insights to End Global Poverty
Varun Gauri, Lecturer in Public and International Affairs

Cyprus and Its Surroundings: A Pathway for a Stable Eastern Mediterranean
Amb. Daniel C. Kurtzer, Lecturer in Public and International Affairs and S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor in Middle East Policy Studies

Debt Sustainability & The Belt & Road Initiative: Determining a U.S. Response
Mary Beth Goodman, Visiting Lecturer in Public and International Affairs

Health Care Reform in the U.S.
Heather H. Howard, Lecturer in Public Affairs and Director, State Health and Value Strategies; and Daniel J. Meuse, Deputy Director, State Health and Value Strategies

Rapid Switch India
Joe Lane, Associate Research Scholar, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies; Eric D. Larson, Senior Research Engineer, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment; and Chris Greig, Theodora D. ’78 & William H. Walton III ’74 Senior Research Scientist, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

Assessing the Use of Call Detail Records for Monitoring Mobility and Displacement
Nealin Parker, Professional Specialist, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination

The most distinctive feature of our undergraduate program, the Policy Task Force (PTF) is a requirement for all Princeton juniors concentrating in SPIA. They address unfinished questions of public policy, often characterized by rapidly changing circumstances.

Topics are selected for their timeliness, their suitability for research and task force deliberation, and their public importance. Task forces often blend domestic and international concerns, economic and legal analysis, scientific and political approaches, and ethical and institutional issues.

Task force members debate proposed recommendations as a group and combine information from their individual research, guest speakers, field visits, and group discussions to arrive at a set of recommendations on the policy problem.

Fall 2020

Partisanship and Political Reform
Mickey Edwards, Visiting Lecturer in Public and International Affairs and John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor

Improving Health Care for Vulnerable Populations in the U.S. During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Heather H. Howard, Lecturer in Public Affairs and Director, State Health and Value Strategies

Nuclear Energy: Climate Savior or Climate Opportunist?
Gregory B. Jaczko, Former Chairman, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Lecturer in Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Rethinking U.S.-European Relations
Robert Hutchings, Lecturer with the rank of Professor in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Rostow Chair in National Security, Emeritus, University of Texas

Rethinking Criminal Justice: Policy Responses to Mass Incarceration
Udi Ofer, Deputy National Political Director, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Director, ACLU’s Justice Division and Visiting Lecturer in Public Affairs

Ending Wars, Building Peace
Frederick D. Barton, Lecturer in Public and International Affairs and Co-Director, Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative

Climate Adaptation and the Coasts
Guy J. Nordenson, Professor of Architecture and Structural Engineering, Princeton School of Architecture and Associate Faculty in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Spring 2021

Diplomacy, Protracted Conflicts, and Missed Opportunities
Amb. Daniel C. Kurtzer, Lecturer in Public and International Affairs and S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor in Middle East Policy Studies

Defending the Rule of Law in (and Beyond) Xi Jinping’s China
Martin S. Flaherty, Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs

How Can We Immunize Every Child in the World?
Alyssa B. Sharkey, Lecturer of Public and International Affairs

Disrupting the Status Quo of Inequities: Acerbating Educational Divides
Bari Erlichson, Former Assistant Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Education

Democracy and Governance in Developing Countries
Carol L. Martin, Lecturer of Public and International Affairs

Confronting Structural Racism in the United States
Jordan T. Camp, Visiting Scholar, Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University and Co-Director, Racial Capitalism Working Group, Center for the Study of Social Difference, Columbia University