BRUSSELS – The Munich Security Conference announced the creation of an annual award in the name of U.S. Senator John McCain who died from cancer on Aug. 25 at age 81.
“In memory of our close friend, partner and longtime companion, the Munich Security Conference has decided to award an annual prize in John McCain’s name. This award will be presented for the first time on Feb. 15, 2019 in cooperation with the John McCain Institute for Leadership, the University of the Bundeswehr Munich, the Bavarian School of Public Policy of the TU Munich and the Geschwister-Scholl-Institute for Political Science of the LMU Munich in the presence of the US Congress Delegation and the Bavarian Prime Minister, ideally in the plenary hall of the Bavarian state parliament,” according to an Aug. 28 statement.
Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference since 2008 said, the event “has lost its greatest friend in the United States – a friend who embodied and lived our mission like no one. It is impossible to overstate the importance of McCain’s unwavering dedication to our conference.”
The award will honor the best doctoral thesis as well as the best dissertation on topics that “were particularly close to Senator John McCain’s heart, namely on themes such as the transatlantic relations, the parliamentary control of the armed forces and the moral responsibility of the West,” Ischinger said.
