The Davidson Institute for Global Security at the Dickey Center at Dartmouth congratulates Matthew Conklin, the Spencer Fellow of the E. John Rosenwald, Jr. ’52 TU’53 Postdoctoral Fellowship in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security, on receiving the 2026 Kenneth N. Waltz Dissertation Award from the American Political Science Association’s International Security Section. The Waltz Award is one of the most prestigious dissertation prizes in international security.
The award recognizes Conklin’s dissertation, The Local Legacies of War: Evidence from the American Way of War and Remembrance, which examines the effect of World War II on domestic political support for the U.S.’s postwar grand strategy. Conklin argues that war’s effects on public opinion and on congressional representation in foreign affairs depend on the type of conflict exposure a community has and on its local political context. Drawing on historical public opinion data, congressional voting records, and fieldwork with veteran groups, he shows that wars often leave uneven legacies, and that these legacies shape how Americans think about the nation’s role in the world.
The APSA awards committee said, “The Best Dissertation Award is presented to Professor Matthew Conklin for an exceptional and innovative dissertation that advances the fields of International Security Studies and American Political Development. Through a sophisticated mixed-methods approach combining historical analysis, original fieldwork, interviews, and innovative quantitative methods, the dissertation demonstrates how local experiences of wartime sacrifice shape postwar public attitudes toward grand strategy and the use of military force. By introducing original concepts and offering a nuanced understanding of the domestic legacies of war, this work makes a significant theoretical, methodological, and empirical contribution to the study of international security. Its originality, scholarly rigor, and important policy implications establish it as a landmark contribution with enduring impact on the field.”
Conklin’s research spans international security, the domestic politics of U.S. foreign policy, grand strategy, and American political development. His other current projects look at the role of think tanks in national security debates, public opinion on foreign policy, and the politics of U.S. foreign information activities. His co-authored work has been published in Security Studies.
Conklin is in residence at Dartmouth for 2026–27. He will join the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in fall 2027.
