Lepgold Book Prize
The Georgetown University Lepgold Book Prize honors Joseph S. Lepgold, a Georgetown University Government and School of Foreign Service professor who died in a tragic hotel fire in Paris in December 2001. The prize honors exceptional contributions to the study of international relations, with particular emphasis on the resolution of critical policy challenges, published each calendar year.
The prize awards $1,000 to the author of the best book in international relations, broadly conceived, each year. To receive the award, the winning author agrees to give a lecture on his or her scholarship at the Mortara Center.
Learn more about the nomination process and the history of the Lepgold Book Prize. Watch the recording of the 2025 Award Ceremony and Lecture.
Winners of the Lepgold Book Prize
2025 – Technology and the Rise of Great Powers by Jeffrey Ding
2023 – The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Works—and When It Backfires by Rochelle Terman
2022 – Pawned States: State Building in the Era of International Finance by Didac Queralt
2021 – Disaggregating China, Inc. by Yeling Tan
2020 – Divided Armies: Inequality & Battlefield Performance in Modern War by Jason Lyall
2019 – Constructing Allied Cooperation: Diplomacy, Payments, and Power in Multilateral Military Coalitions by Marina E. Henke
2019 – Arguing About Alliances: The Art of Agreement in Military-Pact Negotiations by Paul Poast
2018 – Secret Wars: Covert Conflict In International Politics by Austin Carson
2017 – Fighting for Status: Hierarchy and Conflict in World Politics by Jonathan Renshon
2016 – Violence and Restraint in Civil War: Civilian Targeting in the Shadow of International Law by Jessica A. Stanton
2015 – Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership and Genocide in Modern Africa by Scott Straus
2014 – Networks of Rebellion: Explaining Insurgent Cohesion and Collapse by Paul Staniland
2013 – The Company States Keep by Julia Gray
2012 – Alliance Formation in Civil Wars by Fotini Christia
2011 – Leaders and International Conflict by Giacomo Chiozza and H.E. Goemans
2010 – The Clash of Ideas in World Politics by John Owen
2009 – The Invisible Hand of Peace by Patrick J. McDonald
2008 – Targeting Civilians in War by Alexander Downes
2007 – The Nuclear Taboo by Nina Tannenwald
2006 – Dangerous Nation by Robert Kagan
2005 – The Remnants of War by John Mueller
2004 – Electing to Fight by Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder
2003 – Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy Toward Russia After the Cold War by James Goldgeier and Michael McFaul
2002- A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
2001 – The Tragedy of Great Power Politics by John J. Mearsheimer