Contemporary Security Policy awards the Bernard Brodie Prize annually to the author(s) of an outstanding article published in the journal the previous year. The award is named after Dr. Bernard Brodie (1918-1978), author of The Absolute Weapon (1946), Strategy in the Missile Age (1958), and War and Strategy (1973). Brodie’s ideas remain at the center of security debates to this day. One of the first analysts to cross between official and academic environments, he pioneered the very model of civilian expertise that Contemporary Security Policy represents. Contemporary Security Policy is honored to acknowledge the permission of Brodie’s son, Dr. Bruce R. Brodie, to use his father’s name.
The winner of the 2025 Bernard Brodie Prize is:
- Tereza Hendl, Olga Burlyuk, Mila O’Sullivan & Aizada Arystanbek, “(En)Countering epistemic imperialism: A critique of ‘Westsplaining’ and coloniality in dominant debates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, April 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2023.2288468
This article was selected by a jury consisting of five members of the Editorial Board. The jury selected the winner from a shortlist put together by the Editors. This shortlist also included:
- Mark Raymond and Justin Sherman, “Authoritarian multilateralism in the global cyber regime complex: The double transformation of an international diplomatic practice”, January 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2023.2269809
- Kim, D. G., Byun, J., & Ko, J. (2024). “Remember Kabul? Reputation, strategic contexts, and American credibility after the Afghanistan withdrawal”, April 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2023.2253406
- Beaumont, P. D., Wilhelmsen, J., & Gjerde, K. L. (2024). “Reimagining NATO after Crimea: Defender of the rule-based order and truth?”, August 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2024.2349393
- Lonergan, E. D. (2024). Emerging technology and the cult of the offensive. Contemporary Security Policy, 45(3), 459–493. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2024.2367350
The previous winners of Bernard Brodie Prize are:
- Rebecca Strating, “The rules-based order as rhetorical entrapment: Comparing maritime dispute resolution in the Indo-Pacific”, August 2023.
- Kjølv Egeland, “A theory of nuclear disarmament: Cases, analogies, and the role of the non-proliferation regime”, January 2022.
- Eleanor Gordon and Katrina Lee-Koo, “Addressing the security needs of adolescent girls in protracted crises: Inclusive, responsive, and effective?”, January 2021;
- Elvira Rosert and Frank Sauer, “How (not) to stop the killer robots: A comparative analysis of humanitarian disarmament campaign strategies”, January 2021;
- Jeffrey Berejikian and Zachary Zwald, “Why language matters: Shaping public risk tolerance during deterrence crises”, October 2020;
- Tracey German, “Harnessing protest potential: Russian strategic culture and the colored revolutions”, October 2020;
- Jo Jakobsen and Tor G. Jakobsen, “Tripwires and free-riders: Do forward-deployed U.S. troops reduce the willingness of host-country citizens to fight for their country?”, April 2019;
- David H. Ucko and Thomas A. Marks, “Violence in context: Mapping the strategies and operational art of irregular warfare”, April 2018;
- Betcy Jose, “Not completely the new normal: How Human Rights Watch tried to suppress the targeted killing norm”, August 2017;
- Martin Senn and Jodok Troy, “The transformation of targeted killing and international order”, August 2017;
- Trine Flockhart, “The coming multi-order world”, April 2016;
- John Mitton, “Selling Schelling Short: Reputations and American Coercive Diplomacy after Syria”, December 2015;
- Wyn Bowen and Matthew Moran, “Iran’s Nuclear Program: A Case Study in Hedging”, April 2014;
- Nick Ritchie, “Valuing and Devaluing Nuclear Weapons”, April 2013;
- Patrick M. Morgan, “The State of Deterrence in International Politics Today”, April 2012;
- Sebastian Mayer, “Embedded Politics, Growing Informalization? How Nato and the EU Transform Provision of External Security”, August 2011;
- Jeffrey Knopf, “The Fourth Wave in Deterrence Research”, April 2010;
- Diane E. Davis, “Non-State Armed Actors, New Imagined Communities, and Shifting Patterns of Sovereignty and Insecurity in the Modern World”, August 2009.