Hungary’s Balázs Mártonffy, lecturer and assistant professor at Budapest’s National University of Public Service, has received the annual John McCain Dissertation Award for his doctoral thesis this year, at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) that ended on Sunday.
Mártonffy, a fellow at the International Center for Security and Leadership, received the award for his paper entitled “Analysis Paralysis: Threat Perception and Incohesion in NATO, 1960-1980” which analyses why alliances find it more difficult to cooperate in peacetime.
The award honors the legacy of US Senator John McCain, who was a close partner of and regular guest at the Munich conference. It recognises up to two doctoral theses for outstanding academic contributions in the field of political science, with a special focus on transatlantic relations. It goes with a cash prize of up to 20,000 euros.
The second award recipient was Oscar Jonsson, director of the Stockholm Free World Forum, for his doctoral thesis entitled “The Russian Understanding of War”.