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Hedley Bull Prize

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To recognise one of the most influential thinkers in international relations during the second half of the twentieth century, in 2017 ECPR instituted the Hedley Bull Prize in International Relations.

The £1,750 Prize is awarded annually for a book which makes a substantial and original contribution to theory and/or empirical studies in any field of International Relations.

Nominations for the 2025 award are open Friday 8 November 2024 – Thursday 13 February 2025.

Hedley Bull Prize in International RelationsAbout Hedley Bull 

This prize is named in honour of Hedley Bull (1932–1985), who left Australia to study politics at the University of Oxford, and thereafter spent time teaching and conducting research at the Australian National University, London School of Economics, and the University of Oxford, where he held the Montague Burton Chair in International Relations.

Hedley Bull's seminal contribution to the field of International Relations is widely acknowledged by scholars around the world. His book, The Anarchical Society (Columbia University Press, 1977), became a key text in the field of International Relations and is read by IR scholars and students around the world.

Nominations are now open.

Nominations are now open.

Nominate Here
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Nominations open: Friday 8 November 2024
Deadline for nominations: Thursday 13 February 2025

Submitting a nomination 

To nominate, please use the Nomination Form which will display at the top of this page during the nomination period.

Nominations must include, as two separate PDF files:

  • Nomination document: formal nomination letter (including book title and year of publication, and the rationale for nominating the book) plus reviews, if available 
  • Copy of book: book as a PDF file

Publishers will be contacted at the end of the nomination period by ECPR to provide hard copies of the nominated books for our jury.

Eligibility

  • The prize is open to social science scholars.
  • Candidates need not be from an ECPR member institution.
  • Only scholars affiliated to member institutions can submit a nomination.
  • The work must be a published monograph.
  • Entries must be published in the two years before the year of award (i.e. in 2023 and 2024, for the 2025 prize application).

Exclusions

  • Self-nominations are not accepted.
  • Nominations from publishers and agencies are not accepted.
  • Members of the ECPR Executive Committee or any ECPR editors are not eligible.
    • Members of the Executive Committee become eligible after three buffer years, and editors after one. The requirement that a work have been published in the previous two years may be waived in this case.
  • Edited volumes are not eligible.

Prize Jury

Eligible nominations will be reviewed by a jury comprised of the Convenors of the ECPR Standing Group on International Relations (SGIR), Critical Peace and Conflict Studies, Human Rights and Transitional Justice, International Political Theory, and a member of the Executive Committee of ECPR as Chair.

The jury for the 2024 Hedley Bull prize comprised:

  • Chair: Daniela Irrera, Centre for High Defence Studies
  • Sayra van den Berg, University of York
  • Eugenia Baroncelli, University of Bologna
  • Lora Anne Viola, Free University of Berlin
  • Randall Puljek-Shank, Radboud University Nijmegen
  • James Pattison, University of Manchester

The jury for 2025 will be announced in due course.

Prize announcement and delivery

The winner will be announced in summer 2025, online.

Questions? Email prizes@ecpr.eu
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2023 - Rohan Mukherjee

Rohan Mukherjee

London School of Economics and Political Science

Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions

Cambridge University Press, 2022

2022 – Stephen Gent and Mark Crescenzi

Stephen Gent Mark Crescenzi

University of North Carolina

Market Power Politics: War, Institutions, and Strategic Delay in World Politics

Oxford University Press, 2021

Read the News article

2021 - Lora Anne Viola

Lora Anne Viola

Freie Universität Berlin

The Closure of the International System. How Institutions Create Political Equalities and Hierarchies

Cambridge University Press, 2020

2020 – George Lawson

George Lawson

Australian National University

Anatomies of Revolution

Cambridge University Press, 2019

2019 – Arjun Chowdhury

Arjun Chowdhury

University of British Columbia

The Myth of International Order: Why Weak States persist and alternatives to the state fade away

Oxford University Press, 2018

2018 – Simon Curtis

Simon Curtis

University of East Anglia

Global Cities and Global Order

Oxford University Press, 2016

2017 – Vincent Pouliot

Vincent Pouliot

McGill University

International Pecking Orders: The Politics and Practice of Multi-lateral Diplomacy

Cambridge University Press, 2016

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