UNSCR 1540 International Student Essay Contest

THE 2016 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
 For the winning essays and commentary: Countering WMD Proliferation: The Next Generation’s Ideas 

For highlights of the awards event, CLICK HERE. For the full event, CLICK HERE. And for photos from the event, CLICK HERE.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 International Student Essay Contest received submissions from undergraduate and graduate-level students in 44 countries. Resolution 1540 obligates U.N. Member States to develop and enforce legal and structural measures to prevent the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and their means of delivery. The challenge has been to get effective and full implementation of this resolution. This outreach to students for new ideas for countering proliferation and resolution implementation is part of the United Nations Comprehensive Review of the resolution this year. Full contest information and awards can be found HERE.

An international panel of ten expert judges conducted a blind review of the submissions, taking into account clarity, feasibility and ease of implementation, and potential for WMD risk reduction. The only details the judges received were whether the essay had a professor sponsorship and for which country the essayist’s implementation plan was intended. The Stimson Center then reviewed the judges’ selections and forwarded the top qualifying essays, eighteen in total, to another panel of judges directly involved in the work of the United Nations Security Council’s 1540 Committee for their selection of the first- and second-place winners and of the three entries to receive “honorable mention.”

Congratulations to these 18 finalists, listed in order of the country for which s/he developed a plan for combatting WMDs and implementing this important resolution. The top five winning essays from these 18,  noted below, were announced at an awards event and workshop at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 30, 2016, with panelists from the United Nations, Harvard and more. For the biographies of the speakers at the event, CLICK HERE; and for the event agenda, CLICK HERE. For the biographies of the students submitting the winning essays, CLICK HERE.

For the finalists’ abstracts, CLICK HERE and for their biographies, CLICK HERE.
For overall contest results and essay highlights, CLICK HERE
For additional highlights from the awards event, CLICK HERE.

Finalists

(In order of Country Action Plan)

Implementing Country: Burkina Faso
Student:
Jean-Annet de Saint Rapt
University: Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Sponsoring Professor:
Michel Liégeois

Implementing Country: Burkina Faso
Student: Delwendé Nabayaogo
University: University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria
Sponsoring Professor: Dimitar Dimitrov

Implementing Country: Chile
Student: Exequiel Salinas
University: University of Santiago of Chile, Santiago, Chile
Sponsoring Professor: Rodrigo Alvarez

Implementing Country: India
Student: Mujtaba Rafid Rafa
University: Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Implementing Country: Japan
Student: Natsumi Saito
University: Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Implementing Country: Kenya
Student: Brian Machua Gitura
University: School of Arts and Humanities, Daystar Univeristy, Nairobi, Kenya
Sponsoring Professor: Philip Mwanika

Implementing Country: Morocco
Student: Samir Chaouki
University: Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco
Sponsoring Professor: Amina Kharchaf

Implementing Country: Nigeria
Student: Christo Idowu Odeyemi
University: Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

HONORABLE MENTION
Implementing Country: Qatar
Students:  Landon Elliot Poe & Sreelekshmi Rajeswari
University: University of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Sponsoring Professor: Elisabete A. Silva

HONORABLE MENTION
Implementing Country: Russian Federation
Student: Adrian Alvarado
University: Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
Sponsoring Professor: Pascal Marchand

Implementing Country: Sudan
Student: Abeer Salih Abdalhafeez Mohamed
University: University of Ritsumeikan, Kyoto, Japan
Sponsoring Professor: Hideak Ohta

Implementing Country: United Republic of Tanzania
Student: Abdalah Abdulrahman Kileo
University: University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan
Sponsoring Professor: Iddi Mkilaha

FIRST PLACE
Implementing Country: Tunisia
Student: Enrique de Vega Gonzalez
University: Gutierrez Mellado Institute, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain
Sponsoring Professor: Vicente Garrido Rebolledo

HONORABLE MENTION
Implementing Country: Turkmenistan
Student: Hannah Rifkin
University: Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Implementing Country: United States of America
Student: Chase Scott Milligan
University: Stanford University, California, United States of America
Sponsoring Professor: Siegfried S. Hecker

SECOND PLACE
Implementing Country: United States of America
Student: Kyle Pilutti
University:
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, United States of America

Implementing Country: United States of America
Student: Jonathan Roberts
University: Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, United States of America

Implementing Country: Uzbekistan
Student: Marren Haneberg
University: Brigham Young University, Provo, United States of America
Sponsoring Professor: Elizabeta Jevtic-Somlai

 

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