October 15, 2017

The 2017 Winston S. Churchill Leadership Award was presented to General David Petraeus at the Thirty-fourth International Churchill Conference. In presenting the award, International Churchill Society Chairman Laurence Geller stated that the general perfectly exemplified Churchillian Leadership.

General David Petraeus was the inaugural speaker at the National Churchill Library and Center and has fast become one of the Society’s strongest supporters. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and subsequently finished at the top of his class at the US Army Command and General Staff College and earned both master’s and doctoral degrees at Princeton. He served as Commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq during the “Surge” from 2007 to 2008 and later as Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (2010–11) before serving as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2011–12).

The Winston S. Churchill Leadership Award was first presented in person by Sir Winston’s grandson to Bill Gates in 2006. More recently, it has gone to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Senator Joseph Lieberman. Last year the award went to President Steve Knapp of the George Washington University for his decisive work in helping to bring into existence the National Churchill Library and Center, which opened one year ago.

In his acceptance remarks, Gen. Petraeus said that he would like to assist the International Churchill Society even further next year by leading an interview with Andrew Roberts when the eminent historian publishes his forthcoming biography of Winston Churchill.