Earlier this year, The Strategy Bridge asked university and professional military education students to participate in our fourth annual student writing contest on the subject of strategy. The response was amazing, with more submissions than our small team of volunteers could handle.

Luckily, we had an amazing set of partners in support from higher and military education institutions around the world. In particular, we'd like to thank the panel of judges who helped us choose the winners, including key leaders from the Australian Defense College, the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) Institute, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea, Kings College London, Lund University in Sweden, U.S. Air University, the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Marine Corps University, the U.S. Naval War College, and the U.S. National War College.

 More importantly, we would like to announce and congratulate our contest winners

• First Place: Maurizio Recordati, American University, “Towards an Epistemology of Grand Strategy: Stereotype, Ideal Type, and the Dematerialization of the Concept”

• Second Place: Michael N. Gonzalez, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, “Flawed Assumptions and the Need for a Radical Shift in the Next National Security Strategy”

• Tie for Third: Derrick Franck, U.S. Army War College, “Sleepwalking into Risk: Learning from the USN Surface Fleet”

• Tie for Third: Adriana Gibson, Andrew Merchant, and Brandon Vigneron, U.S. Joint Forces Staff College, “Autonomous Systems in the Combat Environment: The Key or the Curse to the U.S. Military’s Future of Warfare”

• Tie for Third: Christopher Saunders, Australian War College, “Logic and Grammar: Clausewitz and the Language of War”

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

The Strategy Bridge Team