Leonard Marks Foundation Essay Contest Award

Eligibility for the award is limited to international affairs degree candidates in the 2005-2006 school year at member schools of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA);

Participants in the contest must submit an essay of no more than 1,500 words on one of nine challenges for American diplomacy in the list below- and propose a policy course to address that challenge over the next one to three years. The paper should be framed as an Action Memorandum for the Secretary of State and should emphasize realistic, practical recommendations for the Secretary's action which are within his area of responsibility.

Any major foreign policy initiative will necessarily include a Public Diplomacy dimension. Therefore, one goal of the contest is to encourage applicants and the schools they represent to think creatively about the role and uses of Public Diplomacy in promoting and implementing policy. Resources available include speeches, press briefings and releases, VIP visits, Voice of America and other US government sponsored media broadcasts; as well as longer-term activity in the cultural and educational fields, such as educational exchanges and sponsored visits of US scholars, specialists, and cultural leaders abroad and visits by foreigners to the US. Where appropriate, the paper should also address the roles of foreign governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and the Congress.

Contest entrants should follow the outline below, so that it reflects the format of an Action Memorandum as used in the State Department.

A winning entry at each participating school will be determined by that school’s faculty. All winning entries will then be forwarded to the Academy, where a committee of its members will select three overall winners; the first prize at $5,000, the second at 2,500 and a third at $1,000. The first prize-winning student will be invited to travel to Washington to defend his or her paper before a panel of Academy members.

Deadline: Participating schools should arrange timing that would permit the winning entry from that school to be forwarded to the Academy midway through the spring semester and no later than May 15th, 2006.

To view a printable version of the contest announcement, please click here.