Earlier this year, The Strategy Bridge asked university and professional military education students to participate in our first annual writing contest by sending us their thoughts on strategy. The response was amazing, with more submissions than our team of volunteers could handle.

Luckily, we had an amazing set of partners in support, including those from higher and military education institutions across many English-speaking countries. In particular, we'd like to thank the panel of judges that helped us choose the winners, including key leaders from the University of Oklahoma Press, the Australian Command and Staff College, the U.S. Air War College, the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Marine Corps War College, and the U.S. Naval War College.

Most importantly, we'd like to congratulate our contest winners!

• First Place: Christian H. Heller, Expeditionary Warfare School, United States, “Weakness into Strength: Overcoming Strategic Deficits in the 1948 Israeli War for Independence”

• Second Place: Samuel Žilinčík, Masaryk University, Czech Republic, “Strategy and the Instrumental Role of Emotions”

• Tie for Third: Edwin Chua, Marine Corps Command and General Staff College, Singapore (Exchange Student), “Fighting and Winning in the Information Age”

• Tie for Third: Julian D'Souza, University of Warwick, United Kingdom, “Lost Blue Helmets in Wars Among People: Revitalizing UN Peace Operations for the Context of Modern Warfare”

• Tie for Third: Harrison Manlove, University of Kansas, United States, “Re-Emergence: A Study of Russian Strategy in Syria, the Middle East and its Implications”

We'll be publishing their essays, as well as some of the other "honorable mention" submissions, in a series in the very near future.  We appreciate all the great submissions from the contest participants!

The Strategy Bridge Team