Belfast lecturer awarded prestigious book prize

A book written in response to recent American foreign policy in Iraq by Professor at Queen's University is to receive a prestigious international award.

Michael Mann's book, 'Incoherent Empire' is to pick up the 2003 annual Friedrich Ebert Foundation book prize awarded for the most significant contribution to the field of contemporary politics.

The book prize has been awarded each year since 1982 in remembrance of the Nazi book-burning in Berlin in May 1933.

'Incoherent Empire' was written over a six-month period in late 2002 and early 2003 as the invasion of Iraq began. Publicly voicing his criticism of the war in the US media and in the book, Michael Mann said: "The American invasion of Iraq and the current state of the war against terrorism are disasters.

"What I say is that American imperialism is incoherent. My book is not so much about American policy being barbaric or uncivilised. It’s about it being incoherent – it simply cannot work."

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation was founded in 1925 as a political legacy of Germany's first democratically elected president.

Professor Mann's prize will be awarded in Berlin on May 13 where he will make a speech.

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