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The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Gareth Evans, was today presented with the 1995 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order at the University of Louisville in the United States.
The award was given for his analysis and development of the concept of cooperative security in his article 'Cooperative Security and Intrastate Conflict' (Foreign Policy, Fall 1994) and the 'blue book', Cooperating for Peace (1993).
The $US150,000 award, given for 'outstanding ideas that can help make the world a better place', is one of the most prestigious of its kind in the world: previous winners include Mikhail Gorbachev, Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland (as Chair of the UN World Commission on Environment and Development) and well-known scholars Samuel Huntington, Robert Keohane and Richard Neustadt.
The announcement for the award, which was made by a three-stage jury process from 43 nominations, described Senator Evans as having 'earned a reputation as a leader in the area of international relations', best known internationally for his role in the Cambodian peace plan, the negotiation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the foundation of APEC.
The award prize money, received in five annual instalments of $US30,000 each, will be lodged in a government trust account, and devoted to encouraging new thinking in the areas of peace building and preventive diplomacy, disarmament, cooperative security generally, and UN reform. Options include scholarships, research projects, publications support, essay competitions - and possibly an annual media prize for the best published article or essay addressing global governance, disarmament or human security themes.
Senator Evans has established an advisory group to help him decide how to allocate the prize money. It consists of Professor Ian Maddocks (Chair of the National Consultative Committee for Peace and Disarmament), Professor Andrew Mack of the Australian National University, Professor Stuart McIntyre of Melbourne University and Mr Michael Costello, Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
At the presentation ceremony today, Senator Evans delivered the Grawemeyer Award Lecture, summarising his prize-winning ideas.