{"id":21753,"date":"2017-06-30T16:12:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T20:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=21753"},"modified":"2017-06-30T16:12:03","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T20:12:03","slug":"security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/politicalscience\/people\/faulkner-christopher\/\">Christopher Faulkner<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/politicalscience\/people\/lambert-joshua\/\">Joshua Lambert<\/a>, both a part of the Security Studies Ph.D. program,\u00a0won the 2017 Florida Political Science Association\u2019s (FPSA) Best Graduate Paper Award for their paper titled, \u201cSign on the Dotted Line: Contracting Private Military and Security Companies in African Civil Wars.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Christopher and Joshua presented their paper at the 2017 FPSA Annual Meeting on April 2<sup>nd<\/sup>, 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fpsanet.org\/\">Florida Political Science Association\u00a0<\/a>(FPSA) is a professional association of scholars and students from public and private institutions in the state of Florida who serve to encourage political science research and education. The FPSA also publishes the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fpsanet.org\/florida-political-chronicle.html\"><em>Florida Political Chronicle<\/em><\/a>, an academic journal.<\/p>\n<p>In their paper, Faulkner and Lambert examine\u00a0why leaders choose to contract private military and security companies (PMSCs) during civil war. Noting that scholars have continued to investigate the impact these organizations have on the dynamics of civil conflict, they show that little has been done to investigate states\u2019 decisions to contract these organizations. They theorize that militarily weak governments relative to their rebel adversaries should be more likely to seek outside assistance from PMSCs.\u00a0\u00a0Analyzing all African civil wars from 1990 to 2008, their findings run counterintuitive to their theoretical expectations.\u00a0\u00a0In situations where rebel groups appear to be stronger relative to the government, the likelihood of a government contracting a PMSC decreases.\u00a0\u00a0Faulkner and Lambert conclude that this result may be due to PMSCs\u2019 decision making calculus\u2014i.e. they are less likely to fight in conflicts where rebels are strong out of fear of reputational damage that may result from poor performance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am grateful for the opportunity provided by the UCF Security Studies program.\u00a0\u00a0Mentorship and collaboration are important for academic development,&#8221; said Joshua,\u00a0a first year doctoral student. &#8220;Joshua and I were excited to\u00a0receive\u00a0the news that our paper was selected as the best graduate\u00a0student\u00a0paper at this years FPSA. \u00a0UCF has\u00a0performed\u00a0well at FPSA in recent years\u00a0and we are glad that we could continue the tradition,&#8221; added Christopher, a PhD candidate in the Security Studies doctoral program.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher and Joshua would like to extend a special\u00a0thank you to\u00a0Dr. Powell, Dr. Dolan, and Dr. Boutton for their assistance in developing this project.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, they would like to thank fellow graduate students Clayton Besaw and Rebecca Schiel for their invaluable feedback.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher Faulkner and Joshua Lambert, both a part of the Security Studies Ph.D. program,\u00a0won the 2017 Florida Political Science Association\u2019s (FPSA) Best Graduate Paper Award for their paper titled, \u201cSign on the Dotted Line: Contracting Private Military and Security Companies in African Civil Wars.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Christopher and Joshua presented their paper at the 2017 FPSA Annual Meeting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[663,1363,4760,3019],"class_list":["post-21753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ps-phd-highlight","category-political-science-departments","tag-christopher-faulkner","tag-fpsa","tag-joshua-lambert","tag-security-studies-ph-d-program"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christopher Faulkner and Joshua Lambert, both a part of the Security Studies Ph.D. program,\u00a0won the 2017 Florida Political Science Association\u2019s (FPSA) Best Graduate Paper Award for their paper titled, \u201cSign on the Dotted Line: Contracting Private Military and Security Companies in African Civil Wars.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Christopher and Joshua presented their paper at the 2017 FPSA Annual Meeting [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-30T20:12:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/06\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicholas Schenk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nicholas Schenk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nicholas Schenk\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/67808b8c8d5e80a78696fdeaaadce322\"},\"headline\":\"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-30T20:12:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":391,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Christopher Faulkner\",\"FPSA\",\"Joshua Lambert\",\"Security Studies Ph.D. program\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ph.D. Highlight - School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs\",\"School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/\",\"name\":\"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award - College of Sciences News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-30T20:12:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/67808b8c8d5e80a78696fdeaaadce322\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"Two smiling men, one with glasses and a beard wearing a plaid shirt, and the other in a striped polo shirt.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"College of Sciences News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/67808b8c8d5e80a78696fdeaaadce322\",\"name\":\"Nicholas Schenk\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/84d9fe2642365b083d6640f5c840b879f74291ac86b853d5fa68222b73fea7ca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/84d9fe2642365b083d6640f5c840b879f74291ac86b853d5fa68222b73fea7ca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/84d9fe2642365b083d6640f5c840b879f74291ac86b853d5fa68222b73fea7ca?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nicholas Schenk\"},\"url\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award - College of Sciences News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award - College of Sciences News","og_description":"Christopher Faulkner and Joshua Lambert, both a part of the Security Studies Ph.D. program,\u00a0won the 2017 Florida Political Science Association\u2019s (FPSA) Best Graduate Paper Award for their paper titled, \u201cSign on the Dotted Line: Contracting Private Military and Security Companies in African Civil Wars.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Christopher and Joshua presented their paper at the 2017 FPSA Annual Meeting [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/","og_site_name":"College of Sciences News","article_published_time":"2017-06-30T20:12:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":1000,"url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/06\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nicholas Schenk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nicholas Schenk","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/"},"author":{"name":"Nicholas Schenk","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/67808b8c8d5e80a78696fdeaaadce322"},"headline":"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award","datePublished":"2017-06-30T20:12:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/"},"wordCount":391,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/06\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg","keywords":["Christopher Faulkner","FPSA","Joshua Lambert","Security Studies Ph.D. program"],"articleSection":["Ph.D. Highlight - School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs","School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/","name":"Security Studies Students Win Best Paper Award - College of Sciences News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/06\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg","datePublished":"2017-06-30T20:12:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/67808b8c8d5e80a78696fdeaaadce322"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-win-best-paper-award\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/06\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/06\/Judy_faulknerLambert.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"Two smiling men, one with glasses and a beard wearing a plaid shirt, and the other in a striped polo shirt."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"College of Sciences News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/67808b8c8d5e80a78696fdeaaadce322","name":"Nicholas Schenk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84d9fe2642365b083d6640f5c840b879f74291ac86b853d5fa68222b73fea7ca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84d9fe2642365b083d6640f5c840b879f74291ac86b853d5fa68222b73fea7ca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/84d9fe2642365b083d6640f5c840b879f74291ac86b853d5fa68222b73fea7ca?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nicholas Schenk"},"url":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}