2024 “Bobby R. Inman Award” Winners Announced

The Intelligence Studies Project of the University of Texas at Austin is pleased to announce the winner and two semifinalists in the competition recognizing outstanding student research and writing on topics related to intelligence and national security.  

The recipient of the “Inman Award” is Jemima Baar a recent Master of International Affairs graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Her paper, Cold War Confrontations: US Intelligence Insights and Policy Responses to the Sino-Soviet Split and the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis (1956-1961), contrasts the responses by policymakers in the second Eisenhower administration to sound intelligence assessments of these notable Cold War security challenges.

The graduate semifinalist is Daniel Atherton, a Foreign Service Officer who earned an MA in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. His thesis, From Trust to Treachery: Unraveling Soviet Intelligence Tactics in the 1920s and 1930s, examines why the Soviet security services relied primarily on strategic deception to neutralize the White Russians in the 20s but transitioned to political violence to counter the opposition movement in the following decade.

The undergraduate semifinalist is Caroline Heffern, a recent graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her paper, Online Gaming Communities: The New Frontier of Intelligence Leaking, the author uses case studies to illustrate the serious – and likely growing – threat that national defense information can be compromised by cleared U.S. government personnel participating in online gaming communities.

Learn more about the Intelligence Studies Project.