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The Munich Security Conference Announces Its Awards for 2022
Following Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2021, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) will present this year’s Ewald von Kleist Award to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. The Kleist Award is named after the MSC’s founder and defining personality for over 30-years and is awarded annually to leading personalities or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to international security. In addition to the Kleist Award, the MSC will present a second award named after its long-time friend, the late Senator John McCain. This award honours outstanding academic contributions on the history, state, and future of the transatlantic partnership. The MSC will present this year’s award to Professor Rachel Myrick of Duke University.
The Ewald von Kleist Award 2022
Ewald von Kleist was the founder and defining personality of the Munich Security Conference. As its patron for over 30 years, Kleist was instrumental in advancing the transatlantic security dialogue and introducing post-war Germany into NATO and the broader Cold War security order. In order to honour its founder, the Munich Security Conference inaugurated the Ewald von Kleist Award in 2009. Recipients have included Helmut Schmidt, Henry Kissinger, Javier Solana, the OSZE, the United Nations, and, most recently, Angela Merkel.
With NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, this year’s award honours another long-standing participant of the Munich Security Conference. Ambassador Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, states: „I am thrilled to offer the 2022 Kleist Award, on behalf of the Munich Security Conference, to Jens Stoltenberg who has served NATO with great distinction for 8 years, and who has always been a true friend of the MSC“.
The John McCain Award 2022
Senator John McCain was a companion, partner, and friend of the Munich Security Conference for more than four decades. After first attending the conference as a young Navy officer, he eventually came to lead the United States Congressional delegation to the MSC for more than 20 years. As such, he played a key role in establishing the conference as an important forum for the transatlantic community.
In order to honour its friend and his long-standing passion for the transatlantic relationship, the MSC has established an award in his name following his death in 2019. The prize is awarded annually to up to two distinguished doctoral dissertations for exceptional academic contributions with an emphasis on an essential and important element of the transatlantic relationship. The international jury is led by the Dean of the TUM School of Governance, Professor Eugenia Conceicao-Heldt. The award is generously funded by Siemens Energy.
This year’s award honours Rachel Myrick, Associate Professor at Duke University, for her dissertation on the relationship between domestic partisan polarization and international politics. The prize will be presented during the traditional McCain Dinner on February 18 by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Lindsey Graham, the successors of Senator McCain as leaders of the US congressional delegations.
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