HIST SECTION AWARD RULES
Please scroll down for award criteria and nomination instructions for each prize.
Francesco Guicciardini Prize for Best Book in Historical International Relations
- The Francesco Guicciardini Prize is given annually and recognizes the best book copyrighted in the previous calendar year(s) on subjects related to historical International Relations. Nor does it see History as a particular technique, such as the use of archives and other primary sources. Rather, it is aimed at histories of international relations and/or the use of history to illuminate theoretical, conceptual and analytical issues in IR. Nominated books should conduct careful historical analysis that produces significant insights into ongoing concerns in international studies. For nominations in 2025, books with a 2024 copyright are eligible.
- Recipients must be current members of ISA (at the time of the presentation of the award).
- The recipients may be at any stage of their career and from any country.
- Self-nominations are welcome.
- Current members of the award committee and section officers are ineligible for the award. Award committee members should also declare any conflicts of interest regarding nominated books to the other members.
- Edited books are not eligible for this award.
- The recipient will be announced at the HIST Section Business Meeting and will be presented with the award at the HIST Section reception at ISA.
- Prize winners will receive an award plaque.
- The prize winner will be presented with an opportunity for a book forum in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.
- The recipient is selected by a three-person committee appointed by the HIST section officers; committee members serve for two years.
- When nominating an author, please submit a copy of the book to each member of the Award Committee, and send a note to the committee chair. The nominations deadline is August 1st.
- Past winners:
- 2025 - Quentin Bruneau, States and the Masters of Capital: Sovereign Lending, Old and New (Columbia University Press, 2022).
- 2024 - Claire Vergerio, War, States, and International Order: Alberico Gentili and the Foundational Myth of the Laws of War (CUP, 2022).
- 2023 – Mark Lawrence Schrad, Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition (OUP, 2021) and Ayse Zarakol, Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders (CUP 2022); Honourable Mentions to Mark Shirk, Making War on the World: How Transnational Violence Reshapes Global Order (Columbia 2022) and Jonathan Wyrtzen, Worldmaking in the Long Great War: How Local and Colonial Struggles Shaped the Modern Middle East (Columbia 2022).
- 2022 - Mira L. Siegelberg, Statelessness. A Modern History (Harvard, 2022)
- 2021 - Vineet Thakur and Peter Vale's South Africa, Race and the Making of International Relations (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020); Honourable Mention to Nivi Manchanda's Imagining Afghanistan (CUP, 2020).
- 2020 - Iver Neumann and Einar Wigen’s The Steppe Tradition in International Relations (CUP 2019); Honourable Mention to Bentley Allan’s Scientific Cosmology and International Orders (CUP 2019).
- 2019 - Tarak Barkawi, Soldiers of Empire Indian and British armies in World War II, and Or Rosenboim, The emergence of globalism: Visions of world order in Britain and the United States, 1939-1950
- 2018 - Martin Bayly , Taming the Imperial Imagination: Colonial Knowledge, International Relations, and the Anglo-Afghan Encounter, 1808–1878
- 2017 - Barry Buzan and George Lawson, The Global Transformation: History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations, and Andrew Phillips and Jason C. Sharman, International Order in Diversity: War, Trade and Rule in the Indian Ocean
- 2016 - Eric Helleiner, Forgotten Foundations of Bretton Woods: International Development and the Making of Postwar Order
- 2015 - Lisa Stampnitzky, Disciplining Terror: How Experts Invented Terrorism
- 2014 - Julian Go, Patterns of Empire: The British and American Empires, 1688 to the Present
Committee Addresses:
|
Hendrik Spruyt (chair)
2929 Country Club Road # 667 Borrego Springs, CA 92004 United States of America [email protected] |
Mlada Bukovansky
Smith College 10 Prospect #206 Northampton, MA 01063 United States of America [email protected] |
Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical International Relations
- The Joseph F. Fletcher prize is given annually and recognizes the best edited book copyrighted in the previous calendar year(s) on subjects related to historical international relations. Nominated books should conduct careful historical analysis that produces significant insights into ongoing concerns in international studies. Nominations in 2025 are invited for edited books published in the previous calendar year (that is, with a 2024 publication date).
- Recipients must be current members of ISA (at the time of the presentation of the award).
- The recipient may be at any stage of their career and from any country.
- Self-nominations are welcome.
- Current members of the award committee and section officers are ineligible for the award. Award committee members should also declare any conflicts of interest regarding nominated books to the other members.
- Monographs are not eligible for this award.
- Special issues of journals are eligible for nomination if they meet criteria otherwise.
- The recipient will be announced at the HIST Section Business Meeting and the award will be presented at the HIST Section Reception at ISA.
- Prize winners will receive an award plaque.
- The prize winner will be presented with an opportunity for a book forum in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.
- The recipient is selected by a three-person committee appointed by the HIST section officers; committee members serve for two years.
- When nominating an author, please submit a copy of the book to each member of the Award Committee, and send a note to the committee chair. The nominations deadline is August 1st.
- Past Winners
- 2024 - Immi Tallgren, Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces? (OUP, 2023).
- 2023 – Christopher McKnight Nichols and David Milne, Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories (Columbia, 2022)
- 2022 - Patricia Owens and Katharina Rietzler, Women's International Thought: A New History (CUP, 2021).
- 2021 - Duncan Bell's Empire, Race and Global Justice (CUP, 2019); Honourable Mention to Andrew Phillips and Christian Reus-Smit's Culture and Order in World Politics (CUP, 2020).
- 2020 – Julian Go and George Lawson, inaugural winners for Global Historical Sociology (CUP, 2017); Honourable Mention for Tim Dunne and Chris Reus-Smit's The Globalization of International Society (OUP, 2016).
Committee Addresses:
|
Jelena Subotić (chair)
Department of Political Science Georgia State University P.O. Box 3965 Atlanta, GA 30302 United States of America [email protected] |
Or Rosenboim
Department of History University of Bologna Piazza San Giovanni in Monte 2 40124 Bologna Italy [email protected] |
Thomas Müller
Fakultät für Soziologie Universität Bielefeld Universitätsstraße 25 33615 Bielefeld Germany [email protected] |
Barbara W. Tuchman Prize for Best Paper in Historical International Relations by a Graduate Student
- Only papers presented on a topic of relevance to the HIST section at the ISA Annual Convention are eligible to be nominated for this award. The nominations deadline is August 1st. The committee consists of Jelena Subotić (chair), Or Rosenboim, and Thomas Müller (see Fletcher Prize above).
- Recipients must be current members of ISA (at the time of the presentation of the award).
- In order to be eligible, authors must have been graduate students at the time of the ISA Convention prior to the one in which the award will be presented (e.g. to be eligible for the 2026 award, paper authors must have been graduate students at the time of the 2025 convention).
- Papers that are co-authored by a faculty member are not typically eligible for consideration.
- Current members of the award committee and section officers are ineligible for the award. Committee members must declare conflicts of interest (e.g. if they are directly supervising the student or are on their PhD committee).
- The recipient will be announced at the HIST Section Business Meeting and will be presented with the award at the HIST Section reception at ISA.
- The recipient will receive a $300 (USD) cash prize and a certificate.
- Nominations by Panel Chairs, Advisors, and self-nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Selection Committee by August 1st.
- Past winners:
- 2025 - Tommy Chai
- 2024 - Eun A Jo.
- 2023 – Jan Eijking; Honourable Mentions to Eric Haney and Amaya Pratap Singh.
- 2022 - Nicholas Anderson.
- 2021 – J. Luis Rodriguez; Honourable Mention to Naosuke Mukayama.
- 2020 – Kendrick Kuo and Yuan Yi Zhu; Honourable Mention to Teemu Laulainen.
- 2018 – Tomas Wallenius and Amanda Cheney.
Historical International Relations Distinguished Scholar Award
- The HIST Section’s Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes an individual whose lifetime achievements in scholarship, teaching, and mentoring have made a significant impact on the field of Historical International Relations. The award is given on a biennial basis.
- Recipients of the award must be members of ISA and of the HIST Section at the time the award is presented at the ISA Annual Meeting.
- Recipients of the Historical International Relations Distinguished Scholarship will be recognized at the Section’s Business Meeting as well as the Section Reception at ISA. The Section will also organize a Distinguished Scholar Panel to recognize the recipient’s achievements.
- The recipient will be selected by the Section's Executive/Nominations Committee.
- Nominations should be sent to the HIST Section Chair.
- Past Recipients:
- 2025 - Hendrik Spruyt
- 2023 – Beate Jahn
- 2021 - John M. Hobson
- 2019 - Jens Bartelson
- 2017 - Yale Ferguson and Richard Mansbach
Merze tate prize for best Article in Historical International Relations
- The Merze Tate Prize is given annually and recognizes the best article published in the previous year on subjects related to historical international relations. Nominations in 2025 are open to articles with a 2024 publication date.
- Recipients must be a current member of ISA and may be at any stage of their career and from any country. Current members of the award committee and section officers are ineligible for the award.
- Although eligibility is open to all career stages, the awards committee will take career stage into consideration when making decisions.
- The date for consideration of the article is the first online publication. Eligibility period goes from 1 July of the previous year to 30 June of the year of the prize.
- The recipient will be announced at the HIST Section Business Meeting and will be presented with the award at the HIST Section reception at ISA. The recipient will receive an award plaque.
- Nominations should be sent by August 1st via email to the chair and members of the Merze Tate Prize committee. Self-nominations, as well as nominations by members of the section and by journal editors are accepted.
- Details of the Merze Tate Prize Committee:
- Chair: Justin Rosenberg, University of Sussex, [email protected]
- Member: Jaakko Heiskanen, Queen Mary University of London, [email protected]
- Member: Andrea Paras, University of Guelph, [email protected]
- Past Recipients
- 2025 - Alvita Akiboh
- 2024 - Naosuke Mukoyama; Honorable mention to Lauren Benton and Adam Clulow.
- 2023 – Kerry Goettlich.
- 2022 - Malte Riemann and Margot Tudor.
- 2025 - Alvita Akiboh
