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2015 ALLIES Writing Contest

In January 2015, ALLIES alumni invited current ALLIES students to participate in a team-based competition to write a short policy paper on American civil-military relations. The papers were anonymized and sent to the alumni for judging based on their content, style, and the quality of their policy recommendations. Participating alumni are involved in a variety of different fields, including Deloitte consulting, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, and others.

Entrants had to be a team of two Tufts ALLIES members, and at least one of the two had to be a sophomore or freshman. Submissions were between 600 and 1800 words and responded to the prompt: “Considering the evolving nature of war in the 21st century, assess developments and trends in American civil-military relations and make policy recommendations to improve the civil-military relationship.”

The winning essay, “Micromanagement in the National Security Council: The Case Against Obama” by Will Beckham (Class of 2015) and Somya Banwari (Class of 2018) examines the changing role of the executive branch in the military’s chain of command during the Obama administration.

Click here to read the winning essay: Micromanagement in the National Security Council: The Case Against Obama