Daniel B. Poneman Awarded Diplomacy Book Prize

Daniel B. Poneman, Fellow with the Forum for International Policy and Principal with The Scowcroft Group, has received the Douglas Dillon Award given by the American Academy of Diplomacy for a book of “distinction on the practice of American diplomacy.” Poneman, along with co-authors Robert L. Gallucci and Joel S. Wit, received the award in recognition of their book, Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2004).

Going Critical offers a detailed account of the discussions that took place in the mid-1990s between North Korea and the United States on the North Korean nuclear program, and argues that the current negotiations to limit the country’s nuclear capabilities could benefit from the lessons learned in the earlier crisis. The book has been widely acclaimed as the definitive account of the first Korean nuclear crisis.

The Douglas Dillon Award is given in honor of books published in the United States, written by American authors who address the history, practice and process of American diplomacy, with an emphasis on the development and implementation of foreign policy, rather than theory. Since 1995, the American Academy of Diplomacy has celebrated distinguished writing with this annual award, which includes a cash prize, was presented at the Academy’s Annual Awards Luncheon Ceremony at the Department of State on December 8, 2005.

The American Academy of Diplomacy is an elected honor society of 180 members who, while in government service, held senior policy positions related to the conduct of U.S. foreign relations. They are men and women, both career and non-career, who held major ambassadorial posts abroad and foreign policy responsibilities in Washington. Its honorary members include all eight living former Secretaries of State, as well as other senior cabinet officials connected with foreign policy. The Academy works to encourage the highest standards of qualification for, and performance in, the conduct of American diplomacy, and to enhance public understanding of and appreciation for the contributions of diplomacy to the national interest.