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Dear Students,

We are pleased to announce the launch of the UWCSEA-APP Peace Essay Competition, the next step in our partnership with the Asian Peace Programme (APP) at the National University of Singapore.

With a focus on developing the voice of youth in peace and peace-building, a partnership between UWCSEA and APP was announced earlier this year on UWC Day (which falls on 21 September, the International Day of Peace) as part of our 50th-anniversary celebrations. UWCSEA and APP share a deep connection through the patronage of Kishore Mahbubani, who is an Asia Research Institute Distinguished Fellow and, as former Chair of the UWCSEA Board of Governors, was instrumental in the founding of our East Campus, which in turn enables UWCSEA to extend our mission for peace. 

The partnership has resulted in the appointment of the first UWCSEA Fellow at APP, Bertrand Seah, whom some of you met at a dialogue I hosted on 21 January.

The APP’s main output is the publication of policy essays in pursuit of its objectives to promote peace in Asia. The essays concentrate on a particular area of conflict, or a particular issue that has the potential to escalate into a conflict. In keeping with the APP’s solutions-oriented objectives, the remit of the essays is to distill the various aspects of a conflict and to suggest ideas that can help ameliorate the conflict. The ideas are novel, yet pragmatic, and are implementable in the short term. APP essays are written and read by prominent academics and policy makers from around the world.

The UWCSEA-APP Peace Essay Competition is an opportunity for UWCSEA students to write a policy essay for the APP, and to have their essay read by some of the most prominent academics and policy practitioners from across the globe.

Students may choose to concentrate on one of the several, seemingly intractable Asia-specific conflicts (or regions with propensity towards conflict). Examples include (but are not limited to): 

  • India-Pakistan
  • US-China
  • North Korea-South Korea
  • India-China

The essays should be no more than 1,000 words, and be focused on solutions for conflict amelioration that are policy-oriented, pragmatic, and implementable in the short-term. The ideas must be original. 

The essay competition will run until 21 March 2022. The winner of the essay competition will be announced in May, and the best essays will be published on the APP website. 

This essay competition is open to all UWCSEA students. Submissions should be made via Teamie folders on students’ respective campuses. 

If you have further questions, please reach out to Melanie Wilson (Head of Global Politics on East Campus) or Timothy Walters (Head and Teacher of High School Global Studies on Dover Campus).

Sincerely, 

Carma Elliot CMG OBE
College President