----------------
Papers are sought on the topics below. Winning entries and select others will be published in future special volumes of Small Wars Journal. For each of the two topics, a $3,000 Grand Prize and two $500 Honorable Mentions will be awarded. Hence $8,000 total purse.
Papers should be 3,000 to 5,000 words in length. Papers will be blind reviewed and judged primarily for clarity of presentation, relevant insights to the question asked, and overall significance of the key points made to the practice of small wars. No extra points awarded for length, name dropping, or how epic the incidents discussed were as distinct from the weight of the insights. Papers need not be OIF- / OEF-centric. Papers must resonate beyond a single silo, i.e. they must touch on at least some aspect of joint, coalition, interagency, multi-disciplinary, or cross-cultural significance.
Papers are to be submitted by midnight on November 30 [November 10], 2009, with winners to be announced in January, 2010. One entry per author per question. Standard writing competition mumbo jumbo will apply, we will publish a final announcement shortly with those gruesome details, including detailed submission instructions.
We will not answer questions about this competition submitted in individual emails. Submit any good questions publicly in the comments below, but let's not split hairs. The topics are what they are.
We greatly respect the works and insights of the usual suspects from the many DoD-centric writing competitions and anticipate some great and hard-to-beat entries from them. We would really like to see some stiff competition from fresh new voices and experience sets not often heard. Please spread the good word about this competition to the far reaches of the empire of important participants in the vastly broad and complex field of small wars. This is a level playing field, and let's get all the players on it.
The topics are:
1. Security vs. [Jobs & Services & etc.] -- horse and cart, or chicken and egg?
The "security is the military's job" camp at one [an] extreme expects more order than can be obtained by kinetic measures without a scorched earth approach. Alternately, it demands that the armed forces exceed their organizational mandate in early phases and then obediently (and wastefully?) hop back into their military box until things go awry again. Other camps may err by expecting too much from non-military actors in non-permissive environments, understating the risks non-military actors [they] already do or should accept, or tinkering with building massive non-lethal expeditionary capabilities that may be unsustainable.
What does security really mean in a small war, how much is needed when, and how do you make meaningful security gains through the pragmatic application of affordable capabilities? How does security relate as an intermediate objective or an end state? Cite [Include] examples of real successes or [and] failures.
2. Postcards From The Edge -- the practical application of the Whole of Government approach.
Organizational issues are being discussed from Goldwater-Nichols II to unity of effort and simple handshake-con. Whatever the structure on high, people from different walks of life and different functional expertise need to work together on the ground at the pointy end of the spear to deliver effects that matter. Discuss real experiences (personal, known firsthand, or researched and documented) of real people facing real challenges that offer relevant insights into the conduct of a small war.
Consider any, all, or none of the following:
- Discuss what worked and/or what didn't, and why.
- How did participants from different agencies, branches, nations, etc. look at problems differently, and how were those views eventually reconciled (or not)?
- Discuss personal challenges.
- Discuss the moral and ethical challenges of small wars.
- Approach as a turnover guide to a successor.
- Inform operational approaches and "grand" tactics, techniques, and procedures.
- Inform human resourcing / manpower / training & education.
- Relevance for national resource strategy.
- Relevance for go-to-war decisions and conflict strategy.
Comments
Please see <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/competition">this page</a> for updated and complete information on the writing competition. Comments are now closed on this entry.
Should have the final gruesome details up by next week. No curve balls.
Basic simple formatting in Word, endnotes welcome, don't count against word limit. Tables, figures, and illustrations also welcome and free (within reason).
Re case studies query -- perhaps a very powerful way to answer the question. But answer the question.
- Bill
My compliments to you, sir(s), for sketching out the two topics so well. Both are relevant to the Indian condition, and specially so in areas where we have 'small wars' going. Having said that, the problems we face have a global connect. I do hope, though, that inputs from India are acceptable to the Editors.
lurker asked in a comment on 7/17 whether pseudonymous entries would be accepted.
Short answer -- still no.
Longer answer -- we understand why, in some very exceptional cases, authors may not submit material if it will be published under their real name. Two important points: 1) we must have a real name for tax reporting purposes of award winners; 2) judges will not see ANY names.
This does lend itself to a compromise solution: we will consider, for <u>extraordinary</u> circumstances, publishing award winning articles as <em>name withheld on author's request</em>. We'll need to evaluate that at time of submission and approve it in advance of acceptance of the article for judging. We'll embed in the detailed submission info and rules to follow.
Start writing, lurker. And Mr. Ambassador.
Writer & Editor here,
From the purse alone, this is beyond what most other writing contests can offer, hence, this is a very big deal.
Also, restricting it to two topics isn't unheard of in a competition. I think you've been specific, the challenge is for the wordsmith to work the details into the work so that it is seamless, engaging and wants the reader to go on. From what I can tell you'd even accept an epic poem.
What other venues are you using to announce this contest? Would you like some assistance in casting a wider net?
Ta!
lurker:
No, but we do acknowledge your concerns.
<em>Ed. -- please see 8/2 update below for special case.</em>
MikeF:
This is a Small Wars Foundation effort, not an individual one. Not out of pocket. Thanks for spreading the word.
Oldpilot:
Absurdity is in the eye of the beholder and we will most certainly link to and otherwise publicize the Warbirds Blog writing contest.
Dave D.
Dan Ford, (et al)
We probably have a third topic up our sleeve in the future. There were a lot of suggestions in an old <a href="http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=4746">Small Wars Council thread</a> that we really worked over closely as we were developing this, but I didn't see yours there. Two other questions in particular emerged from that and are still in our hopper. We'll be sure to check in that thread again before letting the next cat out of the bag, in case you or others have some constructive suggestions.
Please don't post topic ideas here in these comments, let's limit this area to the current contest as it stands.
- Bill