Dr. Joshua Itzkowitz Shifrinson, an assistant professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, has been named the co-winner of the 2017 Article Award presented by the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA). Shifrinson’ s article, published in the journal International Security, discusses the informal assurances between the Soviet Union and the US at the end of the Cold War that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe.
The best-article award is presented annually to authors who best advance the theoretical and empirical study of diplomacy, with a specific focus on writing that attempts to connect the study of diplomacy with broader issues and trends in the discipline. Shifrinson shares the award with Vincent Pouliot of McGill University, who wrote about multilateral diplomacy and the governance of international security in the European Journal of International Security. The winners were recognized on February 24 at the DPLST business meeting at the ISA 2017 Convention in Baltimore.
Sean Lynn-Jones, editor of International Security, said he was pleased that the article had been honored. “Professor Shifrinson has written a provocative reconsideration of whether the United States promised the Soviet Union that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe after the Cold War ended. His article has clear implications for understanding the current state of US-Russian relations,” said Lynn-Jones.
Shifrinson is on the faculty of the Bush School’s Department of International Affairs. His research interests include grand strategy, power transitions, and diplomatic history. Prior to joining the Bush School, Shifrinson was a research fellow in the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 2011–2012, a fellow with George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies in 2012-2013, and just finished a year with the Dickey Center at Dartmouth College. A full description of Shifrinson’s article and a link to the article itself can be found at http://belfercenter.org/publication/joshua-itzkowitz-shifrinsons-international-security-article-wins-isa-diplomatic-studies.
Bush School alums, including Julie Thompson, Claire Berger, and Hanna Fletcher, were critical to the research and writing of the article.
