What are we looking for in an article?

For submitting articles, use the “Submit Article” button/page. If you wish to give us a tip on what you think we should write about, use the “Submit Ideas” page.

All articles published at Unknotted Media should reflect who we are as an organisation. When writing an article, make sure to think of the following:

1. Be accessible

This is not a university essay. We want to be accessible to young people who might not have much knowledge of foreign policy and the language should reflect that. This is also why we try to keep our guidelines as simple as possible and really give you a chance to shine!

2. Check your facts

Factcheck, factcheck, factcheck! While you should check (and cite) all facts in your article, we will double and triple-check everything. It’s not worth being caught twisting facts! 🙂

3. Stay on top of trends & history

We want to be relevant but make sense of history at the same time — no one wants to hear about an event that happened years ago unless you bring a new, sensational angle. Bring bigger trends and bigger events closer to young people, and think about how they can relate to a topic. Don’t be worried if your analysis includes historic examples or some past events, you’re good as long as you can show why it matters today!

What should an article look like?

• The symbol limit depends on the type of text (see below)
• Catchy title!
• You can use the following structure:
  • Introduction (1 paragraph) – What is the main point of your article?
  • Main body (2-3 paragraphs) – main points explained
  • Conclusion (1 paragraph) – Wrap up
  • When writing your introduction and conclusion think about this – can someone understand the point of your article by only reading the introduction and conclusion?
• When citing, use footnotes – cite all statistics, bold claims, or if you quote someone
• Though the formatting of the article will change for the website, when submitting an article to us, use Times New Roman font, 12 pt, justified text, in Word format. 

Types of texts

Unknotted ABC (up to 2,000 symbols; approx. 300 words)

Noticed that many young people around you are confused about some foreign policy-related terms? For example, nuclear deterrence, realist foreign policy, mutually assured destruction or revisionist states? Unknotted ABC is a short, approx. 200 words long text that aims to explain a complicated term in simple language. Unknotted ABC can be used to prep for your social studies class at school or to gain background knowledge to read complex foreign policy news articles.

Analysis of current events (up to 5,000 symbols; approx. 1,000 words)

This is the main type of article at Unknotted Media. Noticed that young people want to know more about particular foreign policy topics? Let’s unknot it! This is where you explain complicated foreign policy events in simpler terms. Do you want to know why Russia attacked Ukraine? Or how the US midterms affect the US foreign policy? These are the kinds of topics we are looking for.

Analysis of historic events (up to 5,000 symbols; approx. 1,000 words)

While we try to keep an eye on trends and current events, we all know that without history there would be no foreign policy. Do you want to explain how some historic event or treaty affects today’s events? Then this is the article type for you. For example, how has the 1994 Budapest Memorandum affected the relationship between Russia and Ukraine ever since? Spoiler alert: it really does!

Research articles (up to 15,000 symbols; approx. 3,000 words)

While we don’t focus on research articles, you are more than welcome to submit one. Please keep in mind that research articles have stricter rules when it comes to formatting, structure and content. House style and guidelines for research articles are currently under review and we will publish a public call for research articles.