Terrorism Research Initiative Pakistan

TRI Projects

Best PhD Thesis on Terrorism and Counterterrorism Annual Award

by the Terrorism Research Initiative

In order to stimulate the search for excellence in academic research, TRI has created an annual award for the Best PhD Thesis on Terrorism and Counterterrorism that has been successfully defended at a university.  For this purpose, a panel of judges consisting of the three directors of TRI – Robert Wesley, Alex P. Schmid and James J. F. Forest –invites those who complete their PhD thesis on yearly basis. The judges read and compare the received doctoral theses and nominate the finest submission for the ‘Best PhD Thesis on Terrorism and Counterterrorism 2013 Award’.

The Award consists of a monetary prize of US $1,000.- and a formal certificate, signed by the panel of judges, declaring the winner’s name and the title of the thesis. The award winner will be announced, and a summary of the thesis will be published in the TRI Journal Perspectives on Terrorism .

The Terrorism Research Initiative will also assist the award winner in finding a publisher for his or her  thesis so that the full results of the award-winning research become available to the scholarly community with minimal delay. The August 2014 issue of the journal will announce the honorable mention of authors whose theses were judged second and third best.

The thesis must be submitted in English (either written in English or translated into English) and should be sent to the chair of the judges panel in electronic form as a PDF. The PhD thesis must focus on terrorism/counterterrorism or closely related forms of political violence and armed conflict.

It should be the product of in-depth research and show originality in terms of introducing new methods, theories or data into its analysis. The submitted thesis should be accompanied by a cover letter in which the author outlines the novelty and/or uniqueness of the thesis and its findings.


In those cases where a member of the jury is in any way connected to a person submitting a PhD thesis, the composition of the jury will be changed to avoid a conflict of interest. In such cases, a qualified scholar from the Editorial Board of  Perspectives on Terrorism  will be invited to take his place.

The judges are looking forward to receiving and reviewing quality submissions. Submissions should be sent to the chair of the panel of judges, Prof. em. Alex P. Schmid, at [email protected].

To remain abreast with the announcements, desirous candidates are advised to regularly visit http://www.terrorism-research.org/work/#/phd-prize/.

TRI – Pakistan Chapter Award

The School of Governance and Society (SGS) at UMT announces an award of Rs. 30000 for a cutting edge PhD thesis in terrorism studies that makes contribution in the state of art literature on terrorism and which has successfully been defended in student’s parent institution. Award committee will comprise members of faculty from quality assurance cell and SGS. Following criteria has been set to achieve the award:

  • Successful defence and notification to this effect by the concerned university
  • Acceptance of abridge form of the thesis in any leading terrorism research journal, indexed and having impact factor
  • Presentation by the selected scholar before the award committee
  • Award committee’s final decision on the potential of academic contribution