国連英検向け オバマ政権第二期目のアドバイス

グーグル検索していた時に見付けたものをご紹介します。今年の1月からオバマ政権は第二期目に入ったわけですが、外交問題についてBrookings InstituteがBig Bets and Black Swansというかたちで推進すべき点と気を付ける点の両面からアドバイスをおくる資料を作っていました。100ページ近くもあるので、全部を読むのは大変ですが自分が関心のあるポイントだけを読むといいのではないでしょうか。

January 17, 2013
Big Bets and Black Swans: Foreign Policy Challenges for President Obama’s Second Term

INTORDUCTION

President Obama begins his second term at a critical moment in world affairs. Administration officials have already generated internal policy recommendations for dealing with the many challenges that an unstable world, much of it in turmoil, will present the president in the next four years. In the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings, we decided to mirror this process from an outside perspective, taking advantage of the diversity and depth of our scholars’ expertise to generate innovative policy recommendations for the President.

What follows is a series of memos designed to present President Obama with a suggested “to do” list for the major issues of our time. We divided these memos into “Big Bets” and “Black Swans.” The Big Bets are places where the Foreign Policy scholars believe the President should consider investing his power, time and prestige in major efforts that can have a transformational impact on America and the world, as well as on his legacy. The Black Swans are those low probability but high impact events that can trip the President up and divert him from his higher purposes; events so dramatically negative that he will need to take steps in advance to avoid them.

The Foreign Policy Program is very grateful to Brookings Trustees David Rubenstein and Ben Jacobs for their generous support of this project. Brookings scholars maintain the highest standards of quality and independence in their research, analysis and prescriptions. This publication is solely a reflection of their individual views

Big BetsとBlack Swansとキャッチーなタイトルですよね。Advantage/Disadvantagesのように書くよりもずっと伝わりやすくなるような気がします。英語学習者というか、日本人の文書作成に結構書けている点なんですよね。少し手も読み手に伝わるように工夫することも心掛けたいです。

Big Bets の一つFREE TRADE GAME CHANGERを見ながら、構成を簡単に確認します。どのポイントも同じ構成をとっていますので読みやすくなっています。はじめは以下のようにオバマ大統領に送るMEMORANDUMのかたちがとられています。こういう使われ方を見ると日本のメモとは違いMEMORANDUMが社内向けとはいえ、ちゃんとした書式をとるものであることがわかりますね。

MEMORANDUM
TO: President Obama
FrOM: Mireya Solis and Justin Vaïsse
DATE: January 17, 2013
BIG BET: Free Trade Game Changer

導入のまとめがあって、Recommendation / Background / Conclusionと続いていますが、まずはRecommendationだけを読むのもいいのではないでしょうか。「どうして？」と思ったら他の部分も読むようにするのです。

Recommendation:
• Pursue both TPP and TAFTA simultaneously. Conclude negotiations in close succession to gain momentum in international bargaining, reap the benefits of emulation (through setting rules and standards of global applicability), and increase your leverage domestically;
• Start the process to secure Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) early in 2013 by reaching out to Congressional leaders in unison with an aggressive public awareness campaign on the benefits of free trade, led by the White House, which seeks to allay some of the concerns about opening U.S. markets.
• Set October 2013, the time of the next APEC leaders’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia, for the conclusion of negotiations. This will provide a focal point for leaders of TPP countries to bridge differences at the negotiating table;
• Launch TAFTA talks as early as possible in 2013 after the U.S.-EU high-level working group makes it recommendations, with the objective of concluding negotiations before the next U.S. midterm elections in 2014.



Black Swansの一つとしてあげられたのはTHE BIG THAWで、地球温暖化対策についてです。ここでもBig betsに合わせてキャッチーなタイトル（問題は深刻ですが）になっています。

ここでの提言は以下です。

Recommendations:
• raise the priority of climate change on your foreign policy agenda, in particular by re-vitalizing negotiations over a post-Kyoto treaty. The Doha round of negotiations, which ended last month, was disappointing. Countries are further away today than they were a year ago on reducing emissions. U.S. leadership can reverse current trends of inadequate global commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.
• Support measures that will enable communities and countries to adapt to the most egregious effects of climate change. On the international level this means supporting and leading the difficult discussions around climate finance and using U.S. aid to support government planning to respond to the effects of climate change, including financial assistance to encourage communities to stay where they are as well as to plan for the relocation of communities whose homes will no longer be habitable.
• Support effective multilateral action to increase both mitigation and adaptation measures. Use your influence with the multilateral development banks to encourage more attention to disaster riskreduction measures in development planning. Work with international agencies and legal experts to devise an international legal regime for dealing with the expected increase in trans-border migration. It is easier to put a system in place before a crisis is at hand.
• Strengthen domestic efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing carbon emissions and enhancing domestic capacity to prepare for, respond, and recover from sudden-onset natural disasters.

こういう資料が読めて議論できれば、国連英検特A級だって大丈夫でしょう。勉強の一つの目安に、また、国際問題のネタの仕入れ先に便利な資料になると思います。TOEFLかどうかというのは教育政策の話としてはいいかもしれませんが、国連英検を受けるような英語学習者にはレベルの低い話です。そんなことに時間を割くなら、こういう資料を読んで議論できるようにしましょう。