Hi Okiblaze,
That's a great question and its one a lot of professional economists and scholars are probably grappling with! The economics syllabus requires you to know the rationale for free trade (David Ricardo's principle of comparative advantage) and the arguments FOR and AGAINST protectionism, as well as the methods of protection - and remember, even if the question is about the 'recent wave of protectionism' it's your job to also communicate to the examiners your knowledge of the theory.
Your essay should include all the theoretical underpinnings (Ricardo's) and an analysis of the arguments for and against - which you can specifically tie to examples of protectionism around the world (e.g. you can discuss protecting domestic employment with respect to Trump's restrictions in the US as well as restrictions on 457 Visas in Australia). I would not have a length discussion about the methods of protection unless you are using one of the diagrams to show the impact a protectionist measure used in the recent wave of protectionism is having on on economies (e.g. you could use the quota diagram in respect of labour market protection).
Just my 2c!
