“Bobby R. Inman Award” Recipient and Semifinalists Announced

The ISP is pleased to announce the winners of its inaugural competition recognizing outstanding student research and writing on topics related to intelligence and national security.

The recipient of the 2015 “Bobby R. Inman Award” for student scholarship on intelligence is Donald Kretz, a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Dallas. His paper, Strategies to Reduce Cognitive Bias in Intelligence Analysis: Can Mild Interventions Improve Analytic Judgments?, makes research-based recommendations to help analytic managers systematically filter certain cognitive biases from intelligence analysis.

The graduate student semifinalist is Cullen Nutt, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His paper, Chronicle of a Correction Foretold: The Push and Pull of Nuclear Intelligence Detection, assesses U.S. and Israeli intelligence analysis of WMD programs in Libya and Syria, developing a model to explain when it is most likely that western intelligence agencies will detect the existence of a hidden nuclear weapons program.

The undergraduate student semifinalist is C. Philip Nichols, a recent graduate of Pennsylvania State University. His paper, CT Strategies: Leadership Decapitation vs Mid-Tier Elimination, uses statistical methods to analyze the relative past success of competing counterterrorism strategies.

With over one hundred impressive papers from students at dozens of U.S. universities and colleges, the papers were evaluated on their academic rigor, clear presentation, creativity, and the potential to contribute positively to the U.S. intelligence community. In addition to the $5000 cash award for the winner and the $2500 semifinalist cash awards, these three papers, linked above, will be posted on the Strauss and Clements Centers websites and will be made available to current intelligence practitioners.

The Inman Award recognizes more than six decades of distinguished public service by Bobby R. Inman, Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.). Admiral Inman served in multiple leadership positions in the U.S. military, intelligence community, private industry, and the University of Texas. His previous intelligence posts include Director of Naval Intelligence, Vice-Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Director of the National Security Agency, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. He continues to serve as a teacher and mentor to students, faculty members, and current government officials while occupying the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.