[ITS]

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The 2013 Ideas That Shape (ITS) Scholarly Essay Writing Competition

Awards: The student/young scholar who writes the best essay will receive $1500 USD scholarship, certificate of first prize, trophy, and six months internship opportunity with Ideas That Shape (ITS). Please note that all decisions made by Ideas That Shape (ITS) are final.

The scholarly essays are assessed based on how each work effectively focuses on foreign policy and presents innovative policy solutions to extant problems.

Subjects for scholarly essay entry:

1) Challenges and Tensions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): the role of diplomacy and trade in the creation of transparent civil societies in the region

2) EU Economic Recovery, Austerity Measures and the Lessons Learned

3) Peacekeeping Missions, Arms Control and Disarmament: Cultural and Political Complexes Involved Within the Contemporary Context

Deadline: all entries must be received by no later than September 30th, 2013

For more information visit: http://ideasthatshape.com/competition2013

Application and guidelines (PDF): http://ideasthatshape.com/rsa/Its2013comp.pdf

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[Sithsaber]

Will post here so i can pull this thread up at will.

[Igor Antunov]

I read a few of the short essays there, so-so.

I don't think fox permits advertisements of other sites on this board directly however. This thread may not be here when you return to it, sith, especially since this forum has a blog section of it's own.

[Sithsaber]

So so as in theoretically unsound or so-so as in i could crush that shit with naught but a half hour of typing.

PS: I know they say they're non partisan but has anyone noticed a subtle bias in their documents?

[Igor Antunov]

So-so in the sense that there is not much depth since they seem to be short, topical essays, intended to attract publishers from social media driven 'news' sites. I guess this is where so much blogspam is farmed from.

No offence intended to the obviously highly educated fellows who have put together these articles, it is well written, just shallow material.

I have a private vendetta against blogspam in today's media. The term 'social media' itself gives me goosebumps. Journalism has reached amateur frontiers-for the worse I believe.

That's not to say that I don't indulge myself at times. Monetizing it is a whole different matter entirely. (sorry fox...if you give me a $1,500 'scholarship' maybe I'll work for you as an unpaid intern for 6 months, writing some publishable articles; but deep down inside I will hate myself not just because you will be exploiting me economically, but because I will be allowing it :P)