Antonian awarded PSA dissertation prize

St Antony’s College congratulates alumnus John Helferich (DPhil International Relations, 2020) on receiving the Political Studies Association’s (PSA) Shirin M. Rai Prize for Outstanding Dissertation on International Relations for 2025–26.

His award-winning dissertation, Overcoming the Community Dilemma: Defence Integration in a Post-Heroic European Union, examines the challenges and possibilities of defence cooperation within the European Union, exploring how European states respond to shared security pressures in a changing international environment.

The judging panel praised the dissertation for ‘its perspective and confident voice’. They highlighted the way the work approached its central themes with ‘insight and curiosity’, developing arguments that were both ‘thoughtful and convincing’. The dissertation was also recognised for being written with ‘clarity and energy’, reflecting ‘a high level of scholarly maturity and significant promise for future work’.

Find out more about the Shirin M. Rai Prize on the PSA website.