Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize 2026: Open for Entries
Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
Apply NowFancy your voice in a top defence journal? Enter RUSI's Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize to research and argue on real-world security issues, sharpen analysis and writing, and win publication plus membership perks to boost your uni and career prospects.
The Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize is an annual competition run by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for original writing on contemporary issues of national and international defence and security. Entrants are judged on originality, strength of argument, quality of analysis, style, clarity and concision.
The prize is supported by Taylor & Francis and offers publication in the RUSI Journal as well as membership benefits for winners and runners-up. The competition is open to non-military students in full- or part-time education and to personnel within the first ten years of their regular or reserve military careers.
Essays may cover any topic related to defence and security—entrants are encouraged to engage with themes such as geopolitics and global security, military sciences and nuclear policy, illicit economies and finance, cyber and resilience, or energy, climate and security. Submissions must be single-author, original, anonymous for judging, and provided as a Word document or PDF.
Entrants must disclose any permitted use of AI and comply with RUSI’s plagiarism and AI-detection policies.
31 Oct 2026
2026 submission period
Location
- Entrants must be either non-military students currently in full- or part-time education, or individuals within the first 10 years of their regular or reserve military career.
- Entrants of any nationality may apply but must present their work in English.
- Essays must be the entrant's original work, must not have been previously published, and must not include any text identifying the author (judging is anonymous).
- Entries must be single-author submissions only; multiple-author submissions are not allowed.
- Entrants must not have any unspent criminal convictions.
- Previous winners of the Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize are not eligible to receive a further prize.
- RUSI permits limited use of AI for images, background reading, translation and rephrasing for flow/proofreading, but any use of AI must be disclosed; entries that include research outputs produced wholly or in part by another person or generative AI and claimed as original work are not permitted.
- Essays must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document or PDF and must not exceed 4,000 words (excluding footnotes).
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