The Canadian Political Science Association announces the first biennial competition for the CPSA Prize in International Relations. The prize was established to recognize the contribution of Canadian political scientists to the study of international relations and to encourage the best Canadian scholarship in this field.

Rules

• The CPSA Prize in International Relations will be awarded to the best book published, in English or in French, in the field of international relations.
  
  
• To be eligible, a book may be single-authored or multi-authored. Textbooks, edited books, collections of essays, translations and memoirs will not be considered.
  
  
• In the case of a single-authored book, the author must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada or a member of the CPSA in the year the book was published. In the case of a multi-authored book, at least one of the authors must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada or a member of the CPSA in the year the book was published.
  
  
• A distinguished prize jury has been appointed by the Canadian Political Science Association, which administers the prize.
  
  
• For the 2009 award, a book must have a copyright date of 2007 or 2008.
  
  
• The deadline for submission of books is 10 December 2008. Books published between 11 December 2008 and 31 December 2008 are eligible provided that members of the jury are informed of the date of mailing.
  
  
• The Prize winner(s) will be announced at the 2009 Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association, to be held in Ottawa.
  
  
• The Prize winner(s) will receive a commemorative plaque. They will also receive/share the set of books submitted to the CPSA for the 2009 prize.
  
  
• To nominate a book, a copy must be sent directly to each member of the Prize Jury and the office of the CPSA at the addresses provided below. Packages must be clearly marked CPSA PRIZE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ENTRY.
  
  

CPSA Prize in International Relations Jury
Canadian Political Science Association
Suite 204, 260 Dalhousie Street
Ottawa, ON
K1N 7E4 Canada

2009
Alain Noël and Jean-Philippe Thérien
Left and Right in Global Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Excerpt from the jury report:
Noël and Thérien make a provocative and stimulating case for taking the left-right divide seriously in the study of world politics. The authors provide a rich historical analysis of how left-right politics has played out in international history, and draw on extensive comparative empirical data to highlight its centrality in contemporary debates about global poverty and development, as well as on subjects such as the politics of identity, the war on terror, and global environmental concerns. Instead of devising a new conceptual framework for analyzing international politics, the authors cogently demonstrate the enduring power of an old dichotomy centred on universal contestations over the meaning of equality. This book also refreshingly reminds scholars of the need to be more transparent about the partisan nature of political debates, including those among scholars, and to be more appreciative of how the left-right division makes global politics intelligible, clarifying what is at stake, and what is held in common in global disagreements. It is a rare book indeed which offers so much to such a wide range of students and scholars, at all levels of their academic careers.