Win £1000 cash prize and publication of your article in The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

This is an annual award presented by The Round Table in memory of the journal’s late Editor, Harry Hodson, and to mark his association with The Round Table for nearly 70 years. It is awarded for a written piece of work by an undergraduate or postgraduate student from a university in the Commonwealth.

Harry Hodson

Henry Vincent (Harry) Hodson (1906-1999), an economist by training, joined the editorial board of The Round Table in 1930, and served as Assistant Editor from 1931 to 1934 and Editor from 1934 to 1939; he remained an active member of the board until his death, and contributed over sixty articles to the journal. Meanwhile he was in government service during the Second World War, including a year as Reforms Commissioner in India; he later wrote The Great Divide (1969), on the partition of India. He was Assistant Editor (1946-50) then Editor (1950-61) of The Sunday Times before becoming the first Provost of Ditchley and Director of the Ditchley Foundation (1961-71). He was later Editor of The Annual Register (1973-88).

Topic

The topic may be freely chosen by applicants, but should relate to the contemporary Commonwealth, or a region or country within the Commonwealth. It should provide an interesting, engaging, and academically-based take on the chosen issue.

The piece of work can be written specifically for the competition or be based on an essay or part of a dissertation. However, on submission it should be read as a stand-alone piece of work, and it should not have been published, or submitted for publication, elsewhere.

Examples of winning essay topics include:

• ‘Global Justice, Foreign Policy, and the Law of Peoples: A Rawlsian Defence of the Commonwealth’
• ‘Canadian Concerns of a Different Kind of Brexit: Britain’s First Application to the EEC and Canada’s Commonwealth Appeal’
• ‘The Commonwealth, Apartheid, and the role of Micro-states’
• ‘Integrating ‘Return’ With ‘Recovery’: Utilising the Return Process in the Transition to Positive Peace: A Case Study of Sri Lanka’
• ‘India and the Commonwealth’
• ‘Dealing with change: Australia, Canada and the Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on climate change’
• ‘A Place to Stand: The Problems and Potential of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group’
• ‘The Politics of Participation: Decision-Making Processes and Developing Countries in the WTO’

Submission criteria

Applicants for the award should contribute pieces of between 1500 and 2000 words in length (excluding any footnotes and bibliography) by 31 December 2026. The prize-winning article may be edited to fit the format of the journal.

Other conditions

Applicants should be aged under 30 and registered students on 31 December 2026. Although only the value of one Hodson Prize will be awarded each year, the Editor may offer publication to other entries submitted. Authors should retain copies of their articles, which will not normally be returned.

Entrants must also provide a declaration of all material and sources used in the research and preparation of the essay; this includes books, articles, reports, any AI tools [and the purpose of this use], and any other kind of document, electronic or personal communication. Entries must be written solely by the applicant. Entries submitted without an accompanying signed declaration will not be considered. The declaration can be downloaded here.

The Round Table may use automated systems and other techniques to identify possible inappropriate use of Generative AI tools. If there is reasonable doubt of Generative AI use, then a submission will not be considered for the prize.

Judging

Submitted articles will be reviewed by members of The Round Table editorial board. The panel will be chaired by the Editor of the journal. Their decision will be final.

The Prize

The prize will have two parts. First, publication of the winning article in The Round Table. Second, the sum of £1000 sterling. The Round Table will also publicise the name of the winner and the winning entry.

How to submit your work

Entries for the award should be marked ‘Hodson Memorial Prize’, and sent via email by 31 December 2026 to secretary@commonwealthroundtable.co.uk.

About the 2025 Hodson Prize winner

The Round Table is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Hodson Prize is Beverley Saurombe, for her essay, ‘Digital Sovereignty in the Commonwealth: Evaluating South Africa’s Cybersecurity and Data Infrastructure’, which will be published in the journal in due course.

Beverley Saurombe is a postgraduate student doing her Master’s degree (MSc) in Computer Science at the University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park Campus. Her research interests focus on human-AI collaboration in cyber crisis management. She completed her Honours degree (BScHons) in Computer Science with Cybersecurity at the same university in 2025. As an undergraduate, she attended North West University, Mafikeng Campus, where she completed her Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computer Science and Electronics. Her first publication was a paper she co-authored titled ‘Investigating the Use of AI in E-Business by the Shoprite Holdings Group’, which was published with Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series in January 2026.

Click here to learn about previous Hodson Prize winners.