Category: Intelligence

Mexican Intelligence Organization And US Security

Introduction

Mexican Intelligence Agency, Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), is the main intelligence organization in Mexico mandated to conduct investigations and collect intelligence on behalf of the state. However, the Mexican Army, the Air Force, Navy, and Mexican Attorney General’s office have respective intelligence bodies dedicated to each one of them. Formed in 1989, CNI has transformed into an agency designed to oversee and make alerts for national security threats and civil risks. Mexico’s proximity to the United States (US) in geographical terms has, in the past, seen increased security concerns in the region, referred to as the North America Region (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018, Chard, 2016). Since the cold war era, many states globally have maintained their intelligence organizations. Most developed countries have ensured consistent funding of their intelligence apparatus besides increasing their operations globally. Conducting intelligence operations for any given country may find direct or indirect effects on other states, whether positive or negative. Citing Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) as an example, several operations they have conducted in the past have threatened regional or a state’s security like their intentional supply of weapons to Islamic terrorist groups in Syria against allied nations’ expectations.

Human trafficking and money laundering have also been on the rise, given that some of these organized crime cartels deal specifically with trafficking. Money laundering is also a major concern for the state. All these challenges have a significant impact on US national security. However, the CNI has risen to its task to combat these crimes both on Mexican soil, the US-Mexico border, and in the region through their intelligence operations (Chard, 2016). Joint efforts from American Intelligence bodies Mexican Intelligence Organization has positioned CNI as a significant contributor to increased security in the United States thanks to the latter’s role as a major contributor in reducing American-Mexican border reduction in drug, human, and arms tracking. In this research paper, we will be exploring the Mexican intelligence organization, CNI, as a major player in establishing regional and American security through their efforts in combating drug production and trafficking in the region, human and arms trafficking, and money laundering.

Mexican intelligence activities have been a major boost to regional security, as witnessed in the past few years. Although the US government provides and funds most of the infrastructure involved, the CNI has been a major partner and aid to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) bodies (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018). Joint efforts and cooperation among these interstate agencies saw increased intelligence gathering. It is through this cooperation that the successful arrest of American-born kingpin, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a high-ranking officer of the now disbanded Beltrán Leyva Cartel, happened. Mexican Intelligence tracked Villarreal across three Mexico before he was finally captured in 2010. With the help of American technology, CNI conducted intelligence collection activities in 2010 (Chard, 2016) on La Familia Michoacana cartel’s head, which resulted in his eventual death after two days of a gunfight. The Mexican intelligence institution’s collection efforts further confirmed its position in efforts to maintain a secure North American Region.

Putting our focus on Mexico, drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, and criminal activities have undermined US national security in the recent past through the porous Mexican-American Border. However, since CNI undertook the role of combating these crimes and ill activities in the Mexican soil and along the American-Mexican border, there has been a recorded increase in insecurity in the region, especially in the US (Arratia, 2016). These achievements have been made through a joint effort between US intelligence and security agencies and CNI alongside other state’s security bodies. It is important to consider the security situation in both countries to evaluate the impact this intelligence body has had on both US national security and in the region as a whole. Mexico have recorded more than 250,000 deaths alone due to the country’s apparent security situation and increased crime rates. Mexico is among the biggest producers of drugs trafficked to other states, including the US, in large volumes, thanks to the existing high number of drug cartels. Organized crime cartels in Mexico have been a major challenge for Mexican authorities and government to deal with, a factor that previously seen a rise in the number of drugs and weapons trafficked into the US.

Whereas CNI had been conducting regional operations against the mentioned security threats in the past (Koff & Maganda, 2016), it was only after establishing a US-Mexican intelligence-sharing partnership that the extent of these crimes has decreased, leading to increased national security in the country. In the past decade, CNI have provided critical intelligence information on drug cartel and organized crime cartels to the US, leading to several major arrests. In addition, the 9/11 terrorist attack and others terrorist events prompted joint security cooperation agreements between the US and other regional states, Mexico being one of them. Following the 9/11, the Mexican government stepped up its security oversight in the region by increasing CNI’s budget and infrastructure (Arratia, 2016), a move that saw improvement in intelligence gathering with an overall impact of increased security in the US. Going by the numbers, the most important initiative between the two bordering states is the Merida Initiative that created regulations on information and intelligence sharing between each country’s intelligence bodies.

Through the initiative, CNI has, on a relative scale, succeeded in reducing the number of illicit weapons in the Mexican streets. Records from the US government indicate that 70% of weapons seized in Mexico between 2009 and 2015 were trafficked from the US (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018). The weapons saw high crimes and drug-related activities, which eventually had a significant impact on US national security. However, since the CNI started the joint regional intelligence operations with the CIA and DEA, the number of illicit weapons in American and Mexican streets has since declined, thus reducing the number of security cases in both countries. The CNI has helped trace and identify the majority of the guns way before their use in crime-related activities.

Further commenting on the impact of CNI intelligence operations on US national security, their intelligence operations and have help reduce illegal immigration and human trafficking from Mexico into the US (Arratia, 2016) through the porous inter-state border. The intelligence organization has had a significant impact on identifying and destroying multiple secret border tunnels used by drug cartels and traffickers. In the recent past, immigration and trafficking had been a major concern for US national security. These passages created room for malicious individuals to gain illegal and undocumented entrance into the country, sometimes terrorists posing as immigrants (Koff & Maganda, 2016).

Drug money is abnormally huge and acts as a significant funding source for illicit and crime-based activities (Arratia, 2016). However, it is difficult to use drug money in the current times without the risk of attracting the attention of the Internal Revenue Service in the US. To avoid this, most cartels in the region use genuinely legal businesses to launder it. Criminals use the eventual clean money with little to no detection, further increasing threats against a US and Mexico’s national security endeavors. The CNI has been on the front line to fight money and finance-related crimes in Mexico, efforts that have seen a decreased level of laundered or illegal money circulation in the US (Chard, 2016). Increased intelligence on organized crime activities and financial records has facilitated apprehension of involved organized crime heads and freezing offshore accounts (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018; Arratia, 2016). With the reduced flow of drug money in the US, respective threats to national security remain manageable. As CNI’s branch, ‘Cyber Investigations and Tech Operations Unit’ (UICOT) has, in the recent past, remained vigilant on the online platforms to ensure Mexican and regional cybersecurity.

Through monitoring the internet space, CNI’s UICOT generates crucial intelligence on apparent threats and activities conducted via the internet. Intelligence shared with respective US intelligence organizations helps combat possible national security threats conducted online. Mexican Federal Act against Organized Operations established the Financial Intelligence Unit to fight money laundering, a serious threat to US national security and Mexico (Arratia, 2016). The ‘General Associate Division of Operations’ (GADO) created under Mexico’s Office for the Treasury and Public Credit, Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico (SHCP) took the task of receiving, capturing, and analyzing bank reports, and custom declarations to monitor money laundering and terrorism financing. When the GADO identifies this process, the information into legal evidence and avails it to relevant international organizations and foreign financial intelligence units. It has collaborated with multinational intelligence and security agencies cases that related to terrorist financing. Justifying Mexican CNI’s significance in promoting US national security in the apparent context, International Monetary Fund reported drug money as a major terrorism financier while recognizing the Mexican Intelligence Organization’s effort in fighting financial crimes.

Conclusion

Created in 1989, CNI has been a major contributor to North American regional security, particularly in the US, being a close neighbor to Mexico geographically (Koff & Maganda, 2016). High crime rates, drug production, trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering are all common practices in Mexico. All these factors are a crucial source of Mexico’s internal insecurities. Due to the proximity to the US, Mexico presents a significant potential of undermining the US’s national security. The latter is a major destination and passageway for most of Mexican-Originated crimes and drugs. The increased flow of drugs, drug money, and illicit weapons between the two states is a major threat to national and regional security. Various methods and interstate efforts have addressed the gaps enabling these activities. The CNI has been working hard along other countries’ intelligence bodies like DEA and CIA (Goldman, 2015) to combat the apparent threats. Through the creation of US-Mexican security relations (Goldman, 2015), the intelligence organization has succeeded in bringing down major organized crime cartels besides countering the flow of illicit weapons and drug money. Money laundering activities have decreased, in addition to also disrupting several terrorist financing activities. The US-Mexican border has always been a major challenge for the US government. With the creation of joint intelligence efforts between CNI and the US intelligence apparatus, the porous border has seen a decreasing flow of immigrants, drug, and human trafficking (Goldman, 2015). As a whole, the CNI has been a major boost for America’s national security and is a positive implication on regional security.

Bibliography

1. Arratia Sandoval, E. (2016). The new hideout of cockroaches? The expansion of the Mexican organized crime in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad, 11(2), 161-185.
2. Bunker, R., & Sullivan, J. P. (2018). Mexican Cartel Tactical Note# 36: Claymore Anti-Personnel Mines (Minas Antipersonales) Recovered in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Journal Article| Feb, 21(2), 14pm.
3. Chard, D. (2016). MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS AND TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS, A NEW ALLIANCE. AIR WAR COLLEGE, AIR UNIVERSITY MAXWELL AFB United States.
4. Goldman, J. (Ed.). (2015). The Central Intelligence Agency: An Encyclopedia of Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, and Spies [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, and Spies. ABC-CLIO.
5. Koff, H., & Maganda, C. (2016). Environmental Security in Transnational Contexts: What Relevance for Regional Human Security Regimes?

Artificial Intelligence & Taxation In India

Abstract

Can India take the big step by combining artificial intelligence with taxation? The major source of revenue for the Government is through taxes. So, can we move towards a system wherein AI will help taxation system to be clear, easy and more compliant? Extensive use of AI & ML will definitely help our tax authorities to be vigilant about the defaulters and create a more comprehensive and transparent system. Can India move towards a taxation system where AI/ML is used extensively in the functioning of tax systems in the country? As per recent sources, India is the first country to go for faceless tax assessment system.

To manage the overall changing scenario in taxes, the country is looking towards the increased use of data analytics by exploring different avenues in AI so as to facilitate compliance and assist professionals in various activities like filing of returns, solving queries, analysing the behaviour & psyche of wilful defaulters etc. Artificial Intelligence, one of the best technologies of Industry 4.0 is transforming every area how countries and businesses operate. AI is helping companies and Governments to manage risk in a better manner.

Technology can process volumes of information in a fraction of a second. AI & tax together have immense potential if channelled in a correct manner. This study aims to understand the implications of AI/ML in the area of taxation and how AI can help in creating a better risk bearing and compliant system

Research Methodology

The study is carried out on the basis of secondary data. Data was collected through secondary sources. The research method used was literature review and library research was used for analysis (Secondary data from websites and research papers)

Introduction

Benjamin Franklin had said that “nothing can be certain in this world except death & taxes” but considering so many developments taking place in the field of technology and AI , we can definitely add AI to this list.

Artificial Intelligence is concerned with making smart machines capable of performing tasks or work which require human intelligence. AI is not only about reducing the manpower or eliminating human beings, but it is a way in which the role of humans is increased/augmented in the work they perform.

This paper helps in understanding the role of AI in the field of taxation. Taxation involves large amount of data – structured and unstructured data coming from various sources. AI & big data is one of the ways through which the inflow of information is channelized.

Artificial Intelligence Concept

AI uses automation to replicate human intelligence to improve the analysis and decision making capabilities. These systems can sense, comprehend, act. AI and application utilize automation to enhance or replicate human intelligence to improve the decision-making capabilities of machines. It helps in completing complicated tasks easily and effectively.

Development of AI in taxation

Taxation functions can be improvised with software robotics and there can be a digital transformation. It can reduce the work and enhance the workload of over 350 tax agents in 1 year. Income Tax Departments are planning to use Big Data to catch tax evaders. Some of the problems with India is failure to pay tax dues, submission of false tax returns, lack of reporting income, income earning & storing in foreign countries.

Sometimes, many people purchase products or indulge in lavish lifestyle beyond monetary means as per their tax returns. This is mostly not visible to the tax officials and they are not able to assess and analyse everything on a manual level. But it is easy to analyse this information with Big Data and Data analytics technologies. Tax laws in India was created in 1961, but there is a rapid need for change in today’s times. There is a need for effective tax management.

Example of AI in taxation – Till now, the income tax officer used to inquire by asking for documents. But now if the system will find any income with no declaration then it will lead for deep inquiry of the person. For example, suppose someone has a TDS deduction of 2 lakh and that is not declared in ITR then the AI and ML based system will proceed for inner scrutiny of the person. It will scrutinize a person based on the e-verification and through system designed questionnaire. Consequently, the government will integrate all information regarding tax from CBDT, MCA, and GS after the declaration of this information to the public.

India is one the countries which uses Big Data to track tax evasion. A country with huge population like India cannot only rely on traditional methods of survey. Many of the analytical problems could not be solved before due to high expenses. Also, the analytical platforms could not handle such large volumes of data. The data collected were not present in the electronic form. All these problems made it difficult to manage and analyse large amounts of data. Therefore, we need Big Data to analyse an astronomical amount of data that is generating every day.

Project Insight?

It is a combination of Big Data Management System and Machine Learning. It can help understand the income and expenditure patterns and inconsistencies in these two. This will be analysed with the IT returns and addresses of the tax payers or assessees. This can help in reducing tax evasion to some extent.

With launch of National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC), the Income Tax Department will usher in a paradigm shift in its working by introducing faceless e-assessment to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability in the assessment process. AI can help in basic as well advanced ways. The basic form filling or Form 16 which is got from the employer needs to be deduced and the same figures have to appear in the ITR while filing the returns. But when a person or assessee in unable to understand which amount has to be put where in ITR, it can be a tough task. Hence basic functions of AI can automatically link the Form 16 with ITR, which makes it easy for the assessee to understand and at least file the returns.

The second advanced function which data analytics and AI can handle is to understand the defaulters mindset or psyche and take care of critical data which needs to be entered. The 26 AS needs a bit of overhaul and it has to be simplified to again incorporate the TDS items in Form 16 to make it easier for assessee to fill it. The assessee should be easily able to understand and incorporate standard deduction from salaries

Many tax professionals perform the same data again and again. But Robotic processing can help avoid the same and automate the process and prefill numbers wherever required. It can help in reconciliations, consolidations and updating the financial data.

Machine Learning can help in extracting key facts and data from computer system. It can guide an assessee as to use which ITR, it can prefill data from bank accounts and TDS amounts. It can help in showing the deductions to be claimed and how much more deductions can be availed. The Income Tax liability can also be calculated. AI can use predictive modeling that can identify potential fraud. It can help in finding clues that are hidden in huge data and not able to be tracked by auditors.

How AI is developed in India

For India to maximally benefit from AI revolution, it should adopt policies to drive AI innovation, adaptation in different sectors which affect the economy in a large way. The education sector needs to be revamped to a better suitable AI powered economy for the future. Public Sector authorities and applications like detecting tax fraud, subsidy leakages and defence research needs to be restructured where AI can make a significant impact.

AI technology has a huge potential to shape India’s economic and national security. The policy makers need to tap this area where they can design policies for short and long term and thereby realize the potential for new technologically and technically advanced India. The only thing that they need to be vigilant about is the detrimental effects of AI proliferation.

As it is said, AI is the new UI; deep learning and machine learning – it can be used for as intelligent process automation, enhanced judgement, enhanced interactions. The technologies can be put to use in terms of language – content classification, natural language search, machine translation, emotion detection, language detection, in terms of vision and sound- object recognition, face recognition, object tracking, optical character recognition, emotion detection, scene recognition, speech to text, speech recognition, emotion detection, language detection etc.

Global Developments

Tax authorities around the world are facing many challenges brought along with international requirements for full transparency, substance and consistency of data worldwide. Leveraging AI as a tool to enhance efficiency, useful outliers and data analytics for the tax administrations has also been a trend among countries.

The US tax code becomes more complex and difficult to understand even for highly educated professionals. In the United States, IRS has been using Big Data on its phone surveillance records, tracking social media accounts and using extensive data mining to develop analytical algorithms for identification of tax compliance issues.

• Australia has partnered with Accenture to create and implement integrated information technology platform – Integrated Core Processing (ICP) and Siebel. ICP is used for client
• China has made AI driven technology the primary motive of its economic development.
• The UK Government had implemented big data analytics in their income tax segment and observed an increase of $ 5.4 billion in tax return revenue.

Some Problems with AI implementation in India

If there are job losses, it will surely impact the revenues and in turn will affect the countries’ tax revenues. If Government wants to encourage technological innovations, it has to find ways where the revenue will not reduce but rather increase in terms of real income It is a difficult task to balance the two things, if robots empower humans to create value it will be surely be an artificially intelligent world but with no human touch.

As sophisticated technology presents new opportunities and changes how things are done, training and hiring employees with high-tech skills becomes a necessity. One of the important aspects of AI is data sharing, but how well is the confidentiality of the information protected? Solution to this challenge is one of the key aspects of AI in taxation.

AI system needs adjustments in order to produce accurate tax audit report. Keeping the system up to date with new policies will make the AI system more acceptable. However, at present, AI is still developing, and the AI system is not able to update itself since manual adjustments are needed.

Conclusion

AI has lot of advantages if used wisely by the policy makers to balance the world economy. AI definitely can be used to make tax forecasting and tax compliance more accurate. AI applications need to be trained by people who understand and know tax. Integrating AI into the tax function can help improve efficiency and help in meeting the growing digital demands of tax administrations.

References

Research Papers

1. Huang, Z.W. (2018) Discussion on the Development of Artificial Intelligence in Taxation. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management , 8, 1817-1824. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2018.88123

Websites & Pdf files

1. Anon, (2019). [ebook] Available at: http://the-data-intelligent-tax-administration-whitepaper.pdf
2. Volkenburgh, Brandon Van. “Artificial Intelligence and Taxes: 8 Ways It’s Being Used.” www.crowdreason.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-tax.
3. India & Artificial Intelligence Revolution.pdf
4. Andrej Kovacevic-Andrej Kovacevic- Andrej- Andrej- Fintech – https://readwrite.com/2019/03/22/ai-is-changing-how-we-pay-taxes-and-how-theyre-collected-too/
5. How Ai Looks To Upend the Tax Function’s 80/20 Rule EY Global – https://www.ey.com/en_lu/tax/how-ai-looks-to-upend-the-tax-function-s-80-20-rule
6. Using Ai To Power Prosperity During Tax Season The Hive – https://medium.com/hivedata/using-ai-to-power-prosperity-during-tax-season
7. Accenture & Artificial Intelligence.pdf
8. PWC (2015) Unlocking the Power of Data and Analytics. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/tax/publications/assets/PwC TFoF Data Analytics global nov2015.pdf.
9. Milner, C. and Berg, B. Tax Analytics—Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning—Level 5. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/tax/tax-innovation/artificial-intelligence-andmachine-learning.html

Leadership And Social Intelligence

Leadership is all about influencing followers by behavior, traits, power, personality or other characteristic. Every leader has their followers which inspire from their leader or some followers are compelled to follow leader due to their authoritative power they have. There are many ways which make different ordinary leader to extraordinary leader. Extraordinary leaders have some extra qualities and intelligence which make them different and effective, at workplace they perform in better way which increase productivity.

Basically, some leader is more intelligent socially. This intelligence gives them advantage over others. Socially intelligent leader take care of their followers not by only words but by actions. They interact with the followers in a way which inspire and powerfully influence them. This is all due to skill of social intelligence, this skill is essential to be an extraordinary leader. From research it has been found that employees prefer good, kind boss if compare it from salary. Mean salary is less important than kind boss. Kind leader retain followers and make an environment in which they increase overall output of organization.

Social intelligence comprises of two things:

• Social Awareness
• Social Facility

Social Awareness

There are four things which make leader socially aware and strong on first ingredient of social intelligence. First is primal empathy, mean to analyze non-verbal cues from other person or team. As we say that action speaks louder than words, same is the case with primal empathy that leader not only give importance to words but action also. Secondly Attunement, when we are saying that action speaks louder than words it doesn’t mean that words are not important. Attunement means that words should also listen fully with concentration, hear the team fully.

Furthermore thirdly social awareness can be increased by Emphatic Accuracy, mean that leader should understand the team and followers their thoughts and feeling also. Finally Social Cognition is also part of social awareness in which leader also has to learn how society as a whole and social environment works. In addition, what is the culture and how to make happy and productive environment of team.

Social Facility

Social Facility is second ingredient of social intelligence in which there are four abilities. First is “Synchrony”, mean leader has to act smoothly after consider other person non-verbal signals. Smooth interaction means that step by step one should act. For instance if we mute the sound of movie then we can analyze that one action is ended then second is started this is synchrony. Next part of social facility is “self-presentation” in which leader has to behave and presents himself effectively in social settings. Furthermore third part of social facility is “Influence” mean leader has ability to agree follower on his objective and encourage them to achieve goal as efficiently as possible. Finally fourth part is “concern” in which leaders not only consider follower needs but do action to fulfill follower needs.

Ways to enhance Social Intelligence

There are some ways through which leader can increase their social intelligence. When leader want to increase skill of social awareness then he should listen well and also give importance to other non-verbal signals by follower. Means leader hear the follower carefully then ask question if further any clarification is required then consider how to respond. If leader is making answer of follower question when follower is still speaking then the listening is not effective and answer is not also effective that’s why one must listen fully then clarify himself then give reply. To increase ability of social facility, leaders ask from the colleagues where he is lacking and then work with any mentor to learn the particular skill.

This assignment is a research paper. This means you will choose a topic that is

This assignment is a research paper. This means you will choose a topic that is focused on intelligence (or be intelligence related and you explain how it is important to intelligence), identify your research sources, identify and apply a research method to your paper, and draft a paper that defends your main point/thesis.
The field of intelligence studies is interdisciplinary in that it incorporates elements essential to economics, business, psychology, international relations, political science, criminal justice, security studies, and more. The term “intelligence” can refer to both a product as well as a process, and a topic that is important to “intelligence” would be something that supports a particular requirement or mission. For example, “competitive” intelligence is often something that’s carried out to support the mission of businesses, whereas “sociocultural intelligence” focuses on understanding social and cultural principles of target areas in a manner to achieve the goals of a particular mission. Executive Order 12333 on United States Intelligence Activities further explains that the goals of United States intelligence in its official government capacity is geared towards assisting leaders make decisions specific to foreign, defense, and economic policies and the protection of the US national interest. However, it’s also important to keep in mind is that “intelligence” is also not limited to the confines of United States intelligence or the United States intelligence community for that matter – the world is MUCH bigger than that.
Topic:
You must choose a topic from your area of concentration which is important to intelligence studies. You are free to choose any topic you are interested in or have wanted to investigate but haven’t been able to address.
Thesis:
Your paper must have a solid, pointed premise. A solid main point is a conclusion of analysis, based on your research, that is reasoned and pointed. You cannot choose a main point which is obvious or self-evident (terrorism led to the war in Afghanistan or the lack of WMD in Iraq was an intelligence mistake). You must ask a research question, research, and draw a conclusion or answer to the question. Your research question should be stated as a declarative sentence in your introduction. That declarative statement is your premise or hypothesis. You must be specific, not vague or general.
Content:
You should be sure to have a thesis that addresses the topic you are focusing on and that this thesis is CLEAR and UNAMBIGUOUS. If you have any questions about your thesis you should ask them on the open discussion board for the class. It is OK to share your ideas and ask for feedback. Also, if necessary, you can ask me for input (though you are now expected to be able to develop your own theses and know that what your developing is a good thesis. Your thesis must be in the first paragraph or section of your paper.
You should also be sure to have section headings, a title page, incorporate citations using The Chicago Manual of Style format, have a corresponding “References” or “Bibliography” page, and incorporate page numbers and all the other elements of a professional paper.
Deliverable:
Your paper should be 15-18 pages in length, double spaced, times new roman 12 point font, 1 inch margins on all 4 sides. You are welcome to use graphs and charts and maps, etc., provided they add new information and support your paper. You should have a title page and a references list (neither of which count towards the assignments total page count).
Sources:
You should strive for 12+ references (which shouldn’t be difficult given all the reading you’ve done in your program). Be sure that your selection of sources gives you balance, that they are credible and reliable and scholarly. To help you figure out the appropriateness of a source, please take a look at the CRAAP worksheet below.
Assumptions:
All research papers have assumptions. These establish the boundaries of the problem, exclude difficult variables, and provide a firm starting point. While having a separate section for assumptions is unnecessary, you must identify them when you make them. (For instance, in an examination of extremist group behavior, you might note that one of your assumptions is that all the group members agree with how its goals are being carried out.)