International Security Awards & Honors
Michael Beckley / The Power of Nations
2019
Congratulations to Michael Beckley, winner of the Best Article Award of the International Security (formerly International Security and Arms Control) organized section of the American Political Science Association. The Best Article Award seeks to recognize the best peer-reviewed articles in the field of international security and security studies broadly defined each year. The winning article by Beckley, “The Power of Nations: Measuring What Matters,” appeared in the fall 2018 issue.
Christopher Darnton / Archives and Inference: Documentary Evidence in Case Study Research and the Debate over U.S. Entry into World War II
2019
Congratulations to Christopher Darnton, winner of the Outstanding Article Award in International History and Politics. The award seeks to recognizes exceptional peer-reviewed journal articles representing the mission of the International History and Politics section of APSA, including innovative work that brings new light to events and processes in international politics, encourages interdisciplinary conversations between political scientists and historians, and advances historiographical methods. The winning article by Darnton, “Archives and Inference: Documentary Evidence in Case Study Research and the Debate over U.S. Entry into World War II,” appeared in the winter 2017/18 issue.
Lise Morjé Howard and Alexandra Stark / How Civil Wars End: The International System, Norms, and the Role of External Actors
2019
Congratulations to Lise Morjé Howard and Alexandra Stark, winners of the Best Security Article Award from the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of the International Studies Association. The award seeks to recognize an article by an ISA member on any aspect of security studies that excels in originality, significance, and rigor, published in the prior calendar year. Howard and Stark’s winning article, “How Civil Wars End: The International System, Norms, and the Role of External Actors,” appeared in the winter 2017/18 issue.
Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press / The New Era of Counterforce
2018
Congratulations to Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, winners of the Best Article Award of the International Security (formerly International Security and Arms Control) organized section of the American Political Science Association. The Best Article Award seeks to recognize the best peer-reviewed articles in the field of international security and security studies broadly defined each year. The winning article by Lieber and Press, “The New Era of Counterforce: Technological Change and the Future of Nuclear Deterrence,” appeared in the spring 2017 issue.
Aisha Ahmad / The Security Bazaar
2017
Congratulations to Aisha Ahmad, inaugural winner of the Best Security Article Award from the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of the International Studies Association. The award is meant to recognize an article by an ISA member on any aspect of security studies that excels in originality, significance, and rigor, published in the prior calendar year. Ahmad's winning article, “The Security Bazaar: Business Interests and Islamist Power in Civil War Somalia,” appeared in the winter 2014/15 issue. Watch the Belfer Center's Author Chat with Aisha Ahmad about her article.
Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson / Deal or No Deal?
2017
Congratulations to Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, winner of the DPLST Article Award from the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association. This annual award recognizes the article that best advances the theoretical and empirical study of diplomacy—particularly articles that attempt to connect the study of diplomacy with broader issues and trends in the discipline. Shifrinson's winning article, "Deal or No Deal? The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit NATO Expansion" (Spring 2016), is freely available. Check out the Belfer Center's announcement for additional details and view their Author Chat with Mr. Shifrinson.
Michael Beckley / The Myth of Entangling Alliances
2016
Michael Beckley's "The Myth of Entangling Alliances: Reassessing the Security Risks of U.S. Defense Pacts" (International Security, Spring 2015) received an Honorable Mention in the 2016 competition for the Outstanding Article Award presented by the International History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). View the Belfer Center's Author Chat with Mr. Beckley for a discussion of the article.
Mark S. Bell / Beyond Emboldenment
2016
Congratulations to Mark S. Bell, whose article “Beyond Emboldenment: How Acquiring Nuclear Weapons Can Change Foreign Policy,” (International Security, Summer 2015) has won the 2016 Patricia Weitsman Award for Outstanding International Security Studies Section Graduate Paper. The award will be presented at the 2016 International Studies Association Annual Convention in Atlanta, GA.
The Patricia Weitsman Award for Outstanding International Security Studies Section Graduate Paper recognizes the best graduate student paper on any aspect of security studies. The paper must have been given at the International Studies Annual Convention or the annual International Security Studies Section/International Security and Arms Control Conference.
In announcing Bell’s award, the Weitsman Award Committee praised his article:
Mark Bell’s paper, “Beyond Emboldenment: The Effects of Nuclear Weapons on State Foreign Policy,” proffers a new a typology that innovatively delineates the ways in which the acquisition of nuclear weapons can alter the foreign policy behavior of current and future nuclear states. He then demonstrates the utility of his argument by examining the “hard” case of Britain’s acquisition of nuclear weapons in the mid-1950s. This piece, which has since been published in the journal International Security, should help frame and inform how both scholars and policymakers think about the effects of the acquisition of nuclear weapons on state behavior.
Mark is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Listen to the Belfer Center's Author Chat podcast with Mr. Bell for a discussion on this article.
Keren Yarhi-Milo / In the Eye of the Beholder
2014
Congratulations to Keren Yarhi-Milo, whose article “In the Eye of the Beholder: How Leaders and Intelligence Communities Assess the Intentions of Adversaries,” (International Security, Summer 2013) has won the 2014 Outstanding Article Award from the International History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA).