Alexander B. Downes has been awarded the 2010 Lepgold Book Prize for Targeting Civilians in War (Cornell, 2008), which is based on dissertation research he completed as a CISAC fellow in 2003-04. 

Downes is assistant professor of political science at Duke specializing in international security. His research interests include the causes and effectiveness of civilian victimization in warfare; the utility of foreign-imposed regime change for achieving states' goals, as well as the effects of foreign-imposed regime change on target states; and the determinants of military effectiveness.

Downes's book argues that civilian victimization is a function of desperation to win and conserve on military casualties in costly and protracted wars of attrition, and the desire to eliminate actual or potential threats to control over territory in wars of territorial annexation. His work has appeared in the journals Civil Wars, International Security, Journal of Conflict Resolution, SAIS Review and Security Studies. In addition to CISAC, Downes has held fellowships at Harvard at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, (2007/08); and the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, (2002/03).

The Georgetown University Book Prize honors Joseph S. Lepgold, a Georgetown University Government and School of Foreign Service professor who died in a tragic hotel fire in Paris in December 2001. The prize honors exceptional contributions to the study of international relations. Past winners of the prize include John Mearsheimer (The Tragedy of Great Power Politics), Samantha Power (A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide), James Goldgeier and Stanford's Michael McFaul (Power and Purpose: US Policy Towards Russia After the Cold War), Jack Snyder and Edward Mansfield (Electing to Fight), Robert Kagan (Dangerous Nation), and Nina Tannenwald (The Nuclear Taboo).