Sara Charney, Chair of the Lionel Gelber Prize Board and niece of the late Lionel Gelber, announced Scott Shane as the winner of the 26th annual Lionel Gelber prize for his book Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone.
About the Book: Based on years of reporting, Scott Shane’s winning book is a brilliant reckoning with the moral challenge of terrorism and a masterful chronicle of our times. It tells the gripping and unsettling story of Anwar al-Awlaki, the once-celebrated American imam who called for moderation after 9/11 but ultimately directed his outsize talents to the mass murder of his fellow citizens, and follows Barack Obama’s campaign against the excesses of the Bush counterterrorism programs and his eventual embrace of the targeted killing of suspected militants. And it recounts how the president directed the mammoth machinery of spy agencies to hunt Awlaki down in a frantic pursuit that would end with a missile fired using the robotic technology that has changed warfare—the drone. Shane weaves the clash between president and terrorist into both a riveting narrative and a deeply human account of the defining conflict of our era.
About the Prize: A literary award for the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues, the Lionel Gelber Prize was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber. The award is presented annually by The Lionel Gelber Foundation, in partnership with Foreign Policy magazine and the Munk School of Global Affairs. A cash prize of $15,000 is awarded to the winner. Two thousand and sixteen marks the 26th anniversary of the Prize.
Read more about this year’s winner on the Lionel Gelber Prize website.
