Dictators and Their Secret Police by Assistant Professor Sheena Greitens has been named a co-winner of the 2017 Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association Section on Comparative Democratization. The selection committee was “deeply impressed with the rigor of [the] comparative analysis and the magnitude of [the] book’s theoretical contributions to our understanding of coercive institutions.” The book was recognized at the September APSA conference in San Francisco.
Dictators and Their Secret Police received an honorable mention for the J. David Greenstone Award from APSA’s Politics and History section for the best book published in the previous two years.
Greitens's book is also co-winner of the 2017 International Studies Association’s annual Best Book Award. The selection committee was “truly impressed with the ambition of the book, the clear and persuasive theoretical logic, and the exceptionally rich case study evidence [she was] able to bring to bear to support [her] argument.” The selection committee also noted: “this is an important book that will have a substantial influence in the field.” Sheena’s book will be recognized at the forthcoming ISA conference in San Francisco (April 2018).