Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize 2019

First prize

The winner of the Trench-Gascoigne Prize Essay Competition for 2019 is Captain Patrick Hinton for his essay, ‘Strategic Culture – In Defiance of a Structural World Order’. Patrick is a British Army officer serving in 47th Regiment Royal Artillery where he works with Watchkeeper, the Army's tactical unmanned aerial surveillance system. 

Second prize

The Second Prize is awarded to Michael Stevens for his essay, ‘Information Warfare: the Roads from Mosul and Raqqa’. Michael is a freelance researcher and reservist Captain in the Intelligence Corps, British Army. 

Third prize

The Third Prize is awarded to Rodrick Wallace for his essay, ‘Channelling the Enemy Vote’. Rodrick is a research scientist in the Division of Epidemiology at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, affiliated with Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry. 

Under 30s prize

The Under 30s Prize is awarded to David Xu for his essay, ‘New Kid in the School – Analysing the Chinese Loan to Africa’. David is currently in his second year at the London School of Economics and Political Science studying a BSc in International Relations. 

The prizes were presented by General Sir Nicholas Carter KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen, Chief of the Defence Staff, United Kingdom, following his Annual Lecture at RUSI on Thursday 5 December 2019. 

The judges this year were: 

Lieutenant General Sir David Capewell KCB OBE, Distinguished Fellow, RUSI, and former Chief of Joint Operations, Ministry of Defence.

Professor Beatrice Heuser, Senior Associate Fellow, RUSI, and Professor of International Relations (Politics) University of Glasgow.

Air Vice Marshal Peter Dye OBE, former Director General, Royal Air Force Museum.

Simon Fovargue, Vice President Defence & Chief Executive Officer Atlas Consortium, DXC Technology.