Dr Sarah Percy has been named the winner of the 2006 Dissertation Award from the Committee for the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (CAMOS), an affiliated group of the American Political Science Association, for her thesis entitled Sons of Iniquity: The origins, development and influence of a norm against mercenary use. This is the third annual prize for best doctoral dissertation in the field of strategic studies. All entries were required to address the conduct, planning, or outcomes of military operations and strategy. The criteria for selection included originality, rigor, theoretical contribution, relevance to important policy issues, and power of expression.
The award will be presented to Dr Percy at the 2006 APSA annual meeting in Philadelphia which runs from 31st August to 3rd September. Meanwhile, she is preparing the prize-winning thesis for publication as a book to be published by OUP in 2007, called The Norm Against Mercenaries.
CAMOS (Committee for the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy) is a group of scholars and practitioners interested in political aspects of military operations and strategy. Their aim is to provide venues for those interested in political-military affairs to discuss their work and renew and expand their acquaintances.
Dr Percy is a Research Associate in the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War. Her research concerns mercenaries and the private security industry; she is also the author a forthcoming Adelphi Paper entitled The Regulation of the Private Security Industry.
