The 2009 Secretary of Defense
National Security Essay Competition

Even though direct military force will continue to play a role in the campaign against terror, we cannot kill or capture our way to victory. Military operations must be subordinate to measures to promote participation in government, economic programs to spur development, and efforts to address the grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies and among the discontented from which terrorists recruit. It will take the patient accumulation of quiet successes over time to discredit and defeat extremist movements and their ideology. Moreover, much of our national security strategy depends upon securing the cooperation of other nations, which will depend heavily on the extent to which our efforts abroad are viewed as legitimate by their publics.

Because of these new roles of participation, development, and cooperation both within and outside of the military realm, the 2009 Secretary of Defense Essay Competition proposes to stimulate new approaches to coordinated civilian and military action from a broad spectrum of civilian and military students. Essays should address U.S. Government structure, policies, capabilities, resources, and/or practices and provide creative, feasible ideas on how best to orchestrate the core competencies of our national security institutions.

        

The 2009 winning essay will be published by NDU Press as a “Special Feature” in the fourth quarter (October) issue of Joint Force Quarterly. Authors of the first, second and third place essays will be recognized by the Secretary of Defense with certificates of recognition with the first place author also receiving a cash prize from the National Defense University Foundation. If conditions permit, winners may meet with the Defense Secretary for personal congratulations and photographs. All finalists papers in each category will be evaluated for future publication in JFQ. This is a joint, interagency writing contest; papers must meet rigorous academic standards.

Senior faculty commitment is imperative for a good competition. Coordinators for each college are requested to inform their student bodies early in the academic year and to update/repeat calls for papers throughout the year. Milestones:

Wednesday, October 15 2008:
Commandants provide names of coordinators to NDU Press

Tuesday, 17 Feb 2009:
Coordinators provide names of judges to NDU Press

Tuesday, 28 April 2009:
Cutoff for schools to submit nominated papers to NDU Press

Wednesday, 13 May 2009:
Judges report first-round scores to NDU Press

Tuesday-Wednesday, 19-20 May 2009:
Judges attend final round conference at NDU

Competition Rules

1. ELIGIBILITY:   Students enrolled in intermediate through senior-level PME/JPME schools including:

   a.     senior service colleges

   b.     service intermediate and advanced schools

   c.     senior joint NDU colleges (National War College, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces)

   d.     Joint Forces Staff College

Essays must be original, not previously published, and completed during the given academic year (2008-09). Essays cannot be submitted for publication to any other journal or academic press concurrent with this competition.

2. TOPICS:   Competitors may write on any aspect of U.S. government national security strategy—addressing the coherent employment of the political, military, economic, and informational instruments of national power to achieve strategic objectives. Essays with a joint, interagency, or integrated operations emphasis, as well as those addressing non-traditional security issues are encouraged.

3. Manuscripts:     National Security Research Paper: Maximum of 5,000 words. This essay contest encourages in-depth research, analysis, and critical thinking that is long enough to complete a thorough argument but short enough to rivet a broad audience. Manuscript length is not a factor in judging so long as the maximum length is not exceeded.

4. PROCESS:   Each participating school Commandant is free to establish and execute independent methodologies for selecting papers to nominate for the Essay Competition. The papers so nominated are designated semifinalists.

a.     Two rounds of joint judging occur: Semifinalists are evaluated by judges who receive and grade papers via the Internet (see the ndupress.ndu.edu SECDEF Contest tab), to determine the finalists.

b.     Finalists are evaluated during the conference at Fort McNair, National Defense University headquarters, resulting in the identification of three winners.

5. Judging Criteria:

    a. Innovation – Does the essay inject new thinking into the collective governance of national security institutions? Does the essay demonstrate a unique approach and/or improve current initiatives? Does the essay take new lessons from history?

    b. Feasibility – Is the concept practical? Does the essay propose a project or concept that could realistically be applied to government?

    c. Clarity of Thought & Purpose – Does the work define a problem and present a solution? Does it show thoughtful analysis?

    d. Persuasive – Is the paper logically organized and well written? Does the work define a problem, exhibit thoughtful analysis and present a convincing solution?

6. FORMAT:   An entry will consist of a title page, abstract page, biographical page, and the text.

   a. The title page should contain the title only—no name, rank, service, or college affiliation.

   b. The abstract page immediately follows the title page and summarizes the essay in a maximum of 200 words.

   c. The biographical page should include recent assignments, academic credentials, and current and (if known) future contact information. For purposes of judging, the biographical page is removed to make papers completely anonymous.

   d. Word limits will be enforced for each category as noted. The maximum applies to the main text of the essay, and does not include title page, abstract, biographical page, and endnotes/footnotes.

   e. The text must follow the format of a scholarly research paper (not a bullet paper, talking paper, PowerPoint briefing, etc.); endnotes are preferred but footnotes are acceptable.

      i. Use the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) or Turabian, A Manual for Writers (6th edition) for overall style and format including endnotes/footnotes.

      ii. Electronic sourcing must include date accessed.

      iii. Papers must be presented by each school POC in electronic form in MS Word format. Files should not contain desktop-publishing embellishments. Please limit formatting to italics, bold, underline, bullet, or numbered lists.

7. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:   Only unclassified essays are eligible. Each college is responsible to ensure that manuscripts do not contain classified information. Winning essays and other papers selected for publication in JFQ will undergo editing, illustration, and OSD security and policy review before publication and release.

8. SUBMISSION OF NOMINATED PAPERS:   Each school coordinator submits to NDU Press electronic copies of all nominated essays in each category not later than Tuesday, 28 April 2009. There is no requirement for schools to submit the maximum number of papers in each category.

9. PUBLICATION RIGHTS:   NDU Press reserves first publication rights for all essays submitted to the SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Essay Competition. Winners will appear in both print and electronic editions of Joint Force Quarterly.

   a. Submission of an essay to this contest will be considered acceptance by the author of this publication policy.

   b. Papers may not be entered in the contest if they have previously been submitted for publication, accepted for publication, or previously published in another Journal, book, or monograph. After publication in or rejection by JFQ, essays may be submitted to other Journals or reprinted.

   c. JFQ will release rights for essays not published to other official U.S. Government and military Journals and Presses—after the contest is concluded and certified—when requested by the author or other Journal director/editor.

10. COORDINATORS AND JUDGES:   Each college appoints a senior faculty coordinator and faculty representatives to act as contest judges at NDU. Coordinators may also be judges. NDU Press needs names and contact information for school coordinators not later than Wednesday, October 15, 2008 and judges not later than Tuesday, 17 Feb 2009. For the semifinal (on-line) and final (NDU) rounds, the intermediate service and senior-level colleges select/send two judges each. Advanced service schools and Joint Forces Staff College select/send one representative each. NDU Press will establish contact and a network of POCs/judges to exchange information and answer questions. The panel of judges evaluates semifinalist papers on-line and returns scores in accordance with the internet form. At NDU, the judges conduct final rounds for each category of the contest. Winners will be selected based on an algorithm reviewed by NDU Press based on normalized high scores. Senior NDU Press staff will act as tie breakers/arbiters, as required. NDU President certifies winners before official notification. NDU Press will notify college coordinators when the winners are confirmed.

11. INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY:   To ensure a fair competition, schools are expected to self-police themselves in the following areas:

   a. Papers must be submitted by students. Faculty or staff cannot submit a student paper for the Competition without the student’s knowledge.

   b. No editing once competition begins. Students are not permitted to edit their paper once each school begins its own internal judging for semifinalists (i.e., school nominees).

   c. No institutional editing following student submission. Under no circumstances may a faculty member edit, correct, or change a paper once submitted by the student.

12. JUDGES & NUMBER OF PAPERS PERMITTED FOR EACH SCHOOL:

Judges        Schools         Transformation Paper

   2                NWC                        4

   2                 ICAF                       4

   1                 JFSC                       2

   1                 JAWS                     2

   2                 AWC                       4

   2                 CGSC                      4

   1                 SAMS                      2

   2                 MCWC                     4

   2                 MCSC                      4

   1                 SAW                       2

   2                 AWC                       4

   2                 ACSC                      4

   1                 SAASS                   2

   2                 Naval Senior           4

   2                 Naval Junior            4

13. CONTACT:
For further information or an electronic copy of these rules, please consult ndupress.ndu.edu or contact the SECDEF Essay Contest Project Officers:

Col David H. Gurney (Ret.),   202-685-4212,   gurneyd@ndu.edu

Mr. George Maerz,   202-685-4378,   maerzg@ndu.edu

Dr. Jeff Smotherman,   202-685-4377,   smothermanj@ndu.edu