Best Graduate Paper 2019: Winner Announcement

The 2019 EISA European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS) at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland attracted 337 participants across 25 workshops. The submissions for consideration as the best paper presented at the workshops by a graduate student were proposed by the workshop conveners who were limited to one paper from their workshop.

It is amidst considerable competition and an overall exemplary standard that the Programme Chairs, Dr Maria Mälksoo (University of Kent and EISA) and Prof Artur Gruszczak (Jagiellonian University) decided to award the 2019 prize to

Dawid Walentek (University of Amsterdam) for his paper ‘Economic Peace Revisited’

The paper was presented at EWIS 2019 at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków 26-29 June 2019 as part of Workshop J: Pushing the Envelope of European Sanctions (convenors: Dr Francesco Giumelli and Dr Clara Portela).

Dawid Walentek’s well-rounded paper addresses an important sub-thread of one of the most central and controversial debates in IR – that of democratic peace. The very concept of economic peace deserves recognition against the backdrop of recent economic and trade developments at the global and regional level. Walentek’s paper stands out for its sound and creative methodological approach and a mature research strategy. The paper offers an excellent elaboration of the linkages between peace, stability, sanctions and conditionality. It asks stimulating research questions, poses well-placed hypotheses, adequately identifies gaps in previous research and offers well-crafted research techniques, including a rigorous econometric model. The conclusions of the paper reflect appropriately the range and scope of the presented research results.

The Programme Chairs also wish to recognize the contribution of emerging scholars who participated in EWIS 2019 from across the breadth of the discipline, ranging from Foreign Policy Analysis to International Political Thought, International Political Economy, Strategic Studies and Science and Technology Studies. They thus award honourable mentions to:

Christopher Brucker (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) for ‘International Norms as Strategic Resources in Secession Conflicts’

Jonas J. Driedger (EUI) for ‘A Theory on the Formation of Small State Security Strategies in Dangerous Regions: Explaining the Strategic Choices of Russia’s European Neighbors’

Karin Narita (Queen Mary University of London) for ‘Truth, History, and Radical Conservatism: Historical Revisionism in Post-War Japan’

Congratulations to the winner and the honourable mentions!

Very best wishes,

Maria Mälksoo & Artur Gruszczak,
EWIS 2019 Programme Chairs