The N3SP is sponsoring its first annual writing competitions for undergraduate students. The non-fiction contest asks students to address the following question:
“What lessons will the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ultimately take away from the conflict in Ukraine about the future use of coercive force?”
Send your essay attached to an e-mail to nonfiction.essay(at)n3sp.org by the deadline of 5 p.m. on 1 March 2024, replacing (at) with an @ symbol. Additional formatting instructions are below. and are different from those for the fiction contest which can be found here.
Eligibility:
All full-time undergraduate students at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS), University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder), Colorado State University (CSU), University of Denver (DU), and the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) are eligible to participate.
Instructions:
Student nonfiction essays must be no longer than 1500 words long. Contestants are free to address any aspect of this question, ranging from lessons in tactics and strategy to technological advancements or issues of policy. Students may also find it helpful to consider whether the lessons that the PRC is learning from Ukraine are those the United States wants it to internalize. In other words, is the PRC seeing and understanding the conflict the same way the United States is?
Essays will be submitted as a PDF in accordance with the following guidelines:
All text must be double-spaced in 12 point, Times New Roman font
The first page should list the following information:
- Author’s Full Name
- University and projected graduation year
- Campus e-mail and cell phone number
All subsequent pages must not include any personal information in the headers or footers. This will allow the panel of judges to review essays anonymously with the first page redacted.
NOTE: Any use of ChatGPT or other AI tools will result in immediate disqualification.
Send your essay attached to an e-mail to nonfiction.essay(at)n3sp.org by 5 p.m. Mountain Time on 1 March 2024, replacing (at) with an @ symbol.
Prizes:
The top essay will be awarded a first prize of $1,000. Second place will receive $750. Third place wins $500.
The top three authors will have their essays published by the Air Force Academy’s Institute for Future Conflict on its website and be invited to present and discuss their work at the N3SP Forum in April 2024.