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Arthur Ross Book Award

Arthur Ross Book Award

The annual Arthur Ross Book Award recognizes books that make an outstanding contribution to the understanding of foreign policy or international relations. The prize, endowed by the late Arthur Ross in 2001, is for nonfiction works from the past year, in English or translation, that merit special attention for:

  • bringing forth new information that changes the understanding of events or problems;
  • developing analytical approaches that offer insights into critical issues; or
  • introducing ideas that help resolve foreign policy problems.

2020 Award Winners

Gold Medal
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Patrick Radden Keefe

Silver Medal
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
George Packer

Bronze Medal
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
William Dalrymple

Arthur Ross Book Award Events

You can view past Arthur Ross Book Award events and read the transcripts here.

The Past Winners

Here is the list of past winners of the Arthur Ross Book Award, 2005 through 2019.

Procedures

We are no longer accepting nominations for the 2020 award cycle. The deadline to submit nominations for the 2021 Arthur Ross Book Award is Sunday, February 21, 2021. If you would like to nominate a book published in 2020 for the 2021 award, please email ARBA@cfr.org with the following in the text of the email.

  • Book title
  • Book author
  • Publication date, including year
  • Publisher name


For any other inquiries, please call 212.434.9600.

Jury

Gideon Rose (Chair)
Peter G. Peterson Chair and Editor, Foreign Affairs

Lisa Anderson
President Emerita, American University in Cairo

Nicholas Eberstadt
Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Jose W. Fernandez
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP

Sumit Ganguly
Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana University at Bloomington

Michelle D. Gavin
Senior Fellow for Africa Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Former U.S. Ambassador to Botswana

Walter Russell Mead
James Clarke Chace Professor in Foreign Affairs and Humanities, Bard College

Susan L. Shirk
Research Professor and Chair, 21st Century China Center, University of California at San Diego

Calvin G. Sims
President and Chief Executive Officer, International House

Andrew Ross Sorkin
Columnist and Assistant Business Editor, New York Times

News Releases

News Releases