Examining History to Explore the Future

September 9, 2021


Call for Nominations
Deadline: Thursday, 7 October 2021


The Andrew W. Marshall Foundation (AWMF) seeks nominations of French and American scholars and practitioners to participate in a team project from December 2021 to September 2022 examining how France and the United States’ histories with China may influence their respective relations with China through 2050. This project is part of a larger effort by AWMF to support people interested in exploring how a nation’s history may shape its future.

From these nominations, AWMF will assemble one French team and one American team. Each team member will have a distinct disciplinary or experiential background.


Each team will explore how its respective nation’s history with China may shape its nation’s future national interests and objectives; perceptions of threats and challenges; assessments of competitive and comparative advantages; potential changes in the geo-strategic/geo-economic landscapes; and aspects of national or strategic culture or collective memory.

Teams will each research and write a paper of approximately 20,000 words. After the paper-writing period, the French team and the American team will hold capstone discussions to analyze areas of convergence and divergence in their perspectives. AWMF will publish the two team papers and the capstone discussion findings in both French and English. It also will sponsor an event presenting the teams and their findings to a broad audience. Each team will receive an honorarium of $20,000, split evenly unless instructed otherwise in writing, signed by all members.

Selected participants will be notified in November 2021 and the project will launch in December 2021. Teams will have five months to complete their papers ahead of the capstone discussions in Summer 2022. Paper presentations will occur in Fall 2022.
This project is open to French and American scholars and practitioners from any discipline, industry, or background who offer a unique perspective and are passionate about working in multidisciplinary teams to better understand the future.

Capstone discussions will be conducted in English, so we ask that all nominees be fluent or nearly fluent in spoken English.

To nominate or be nominated as a French or American team member, please send the following in a single PDF document to info@andrewwmarshallfoundation.org by 11:59pm on Thursday, 7 October 2021:

  • Cover page containing the following (may be in bullet form):
    • The team for which the individual is being nominated (French Team or American Team)
    • The nominator’s full name, title, affiliation, email address, and phone number
    • The nominee’s full name, title, affiliation, email address, and phone number
  • Recommendation statement written by the nominator of up to 250 words in either French or English
  • Statement of interest written by the nominee of up to 500 words in French or English
  • Nominee’s CV in either French or English, not to exceed five pages

The PDF may be sent by either the nominator or the nominee. Nominations of full, multidisciplinary teams of 3-5 people are also welcome, though AWMF reserves the right to select individuals from the team should it deem it appropriate to do so.

For more information on this project, click here.