“The passing decades confirm Dean Acheson’s place as the clearest thinking, most effective Secretary of State of the twentieth century. As a writer he has no equal since Thomas Jefferson first occupied the office in the eighteenth century.”
–Gaddis Smith ’54, Larned Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University
The Acheson Prize is awarded for original, unpublished undergraduate essays on international questions broadly understood. Named for Dean Gooderham Acheson ’15, the prize is awarded annually by the Yale Review of International Studies, with support from International Security Studies. Mr. Acheson served as Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953. Following his tenure at the State Department, he served on the Yale Corporation. In 1970, he won the Pulitzer Prize in History for his memoir, Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department. This prize honors Acheson’s legacy as a thinker, scholar, and public servant.
The following six finalists published distinguished themselves among a truly excellent pool of over 100 submissions. The essays are published in the Acheson Prize issue (Vol. 4, Issue 3) of the Review.
FIRST PLACE ($500)
Hannah Carrese (PC ’16), “Wrestling with Rootlessness, Individual and Political: Tracking Refugees from Crisis Toward a New Language and New Politics”
SECOND PLACE ($300)
Sergio Infante (CC ’18), “From Pan-Arabism to Pan-Africanism: Sonic Solidarities in Francophone North Africa, 1930-Present”
THIRD PLACE ($200)
Micaela Bullard (CC ’18), “Repatriating Machu Picchu: On the Yale Peruvian Expedition and the Imperialism of Archaeology”
HONORABLE MENTION
Arvin Anoop (JE ’18), “Disaggregating the Coercive Apparatus: The Competing Calculi of Parallel Security Institutions in Egypt and Tunisia”
Ryan Pearson (BK ’17), “Ground Truth: A Comparison of SOF Operations and Strategic Objectives in Afghanistan”
Finally, the Review would like to thank our distinguished panel of judges:
Charles Hill is a Distinguished Fellow of International Security Studies at Yale.
Jolyon Howorth is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics at the University of Bath.
Jean Krasno is a Distinguished Fellow of International Security Studies at Yale.
Michele L. Malvesti is a Senior Fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
Amanda Behm is the Associate Director of International Security Studies at Yale.
To view more information about the prize and the original rules governing the competition, click here.