About the Stuart L. Bernath Scholarly Article Prize
The purpose of the prize is to recognize and encourage distinguished research and writing by junior scholars in the field of diplomatic relations. The prize of $1,000 is awarded annually to the author of a distinguished article appearing in a scholarly journal or edited book, on any topic in United States foreign relations.
Eligibility
The author must be a graduate student or within ten years of receiving the Ph.D. at the time of the article's acceptance for publication. The article must be among the first six publications by the author. Previous winners of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Award or the Myrna F. Bernath Book Award are ineligible.
Procedures
All articles appearing in Diplomatic History will be automatically considered without nomination. Other nominations may be submitted by the author or by any member of SHAFR. The award is presented during the SHAFR annual conference.
Submission Procedures
To nominate an article published in 2026 for the 2027 prize, please follow the submission guidelines outlined below.
Required Materials
Please provide: - An electronic copy of the article - A concise cv of the author - A formal letter of nomination
Submission Destination
All nomination materials should be emailed to Kaete O'Connell.
Deadline
To be considered for the 2027 prize, nominations must be received by February 1, 2027.
2026Jethro A. E. A. Calacday "The Politics of Recognition in U.S.-Philippine-Vatican Relations, 1898–1899," Diplomatic History 49 (2025): 254–278.
2025Ben Zdencanovic "‘A Strange Paradox’: U.S. Global Economic Power and the British Welfare State, 1944–1951," Diplomatic History 48 (2024): 549–572.
2024Sarah Sears "Beyond the River's Violence: Reconsidering the Chamizal Border Dispute," Diplomatic History 47 (2023): 419–445.
2023Emilie Connolly "Fiduciary Colonialism: Annuities and Native Dispossession in the Early United States," American Historical Review 127 (2022): 223–253.
2022Mattias Fibiger “A Diplomatic Counter-revolution: Indonesian Diplomacy and the Invasion of East Timor,” Modern Asian Studies 55 (2021): 587–628.
2021Mira Kohl "Between Louisiana and Latin America: Oil Imperialism and Bolivia's 1937 Nationalization," Diplomatic History 44 (2020): 210–236.
2020Bathsheba Demuth "The Walrus and the Bureaucrat: Energy, Ecology, and Making the State in the Russian and American Arctic, 1870–1950,” American Historical Review 124 (2019): 483–510.
The 2010s
2019Alex Beasley “Service Learning: Oil, International Education, and Texas’s Corporate Cold War,” Diplomatic History 42 (2018): 177–203.
2018Vanessa Ogle "Archipelago Capitalism: Tax Havens, Offshore Money, and the State, 1950s-1970s," American Historical Review 122 (2017): 1431–1458.
2017Tehila Sasson "Milking the Third World: Humanitarianism, Capitalism, and the Moral Economy of the Nestlé Boycott," American Historical Review 121 (2016): 1196–1224.
2016Tore C. Olsson “Sharecroppers and Campesinos: The American South, Mexico, and the Transnational Politics of Land Reform in the Radical 1930s,” Journal of Southern History 81 (2015): 607–646.
2015Brooke Blower “From Isolationism to Neutrality: A New Framework for Understanding American Political Culture, 1919–1941,” Diplomatic History 38 (2014): 345–376.
2014Sarah Miller Davenport “‘Their blood shall not be shed in vain’: American Evangelical Missionaries and the Search for God and Country in Post-World War II Asia,” Journal of American History 99 (2013): 1109–1132.
2013Thomas C. Field, Jr. “Ideology as Strategy: Military-Led Modernization and the Origins of the Alliance for Progress in Bolivia,” Diplomatic History 36 (2012): 147–183.
2012Gregory Wigmore “Before the Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom in the Canadian-American Borderland,” Journal of American History 98 (2011): 437–454.
2011Andrew C. McKevitt "'You Are Not Alone!': Anime and the Globalizing of America," Diplomatic History 34 (2010): 893–921.
2010Ryan Irwin "A Wind of Change?: White Redoubt and the Postcolonial Moment, 1960–1963," Diplomatic History 33 (2009): 897–925.
The 2000s
2009Brian C. Etheridge "The Desert Fox, Memory Diplomacy, and the German Question in Early Cold War America," Diplomatic History 32 (2008): 207–238.
2008Brian Delay "Independent Indians and the U.S.-Mexican War," American Historical Review 112 (2007): 35–68.
2007Sarah Graham "The (Real) Politiks of Culture: U.S. Cultural Diplomacy in Unesco, 1946–1954," Diplomatic History 30 (2006): 231–251.
2006Sahr Conway-Lanz "Beyond No Gun Ri: Refugees and the United States Military in the Korean War," Diplomatic History 29 (2005): 49–81.
2005Lawrence A. Peskin "The Lessons of Independence: How the Algerian Crisis Shaped Early-American History," Diplomatic History 28 (2004): 297–319.
2004Max Paul Friedman "There Goes the Neighborhood: Blacklisting Germans in Latin America and the Evanescence of the Good Neighbor Policy," Diplomatic History 27 (2003): 569–597.
2003Amy L. S. Staples "Seeing Diplomacy Through Banker's Eyes: The World Bank, The Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis, and the Aswan High Dam," Diplomatic History 26 (2002): 397–418.
