About
An independent guide to a serious writing contest.
We explain the Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest clearly and accurately, and help students prepare—so the contest is about your ideas, not about figuring out the rules.
The journal behind the contest
What is the Harvard International Review?
The Harvard International Review (HIR) is a quarterly magazine of international affairs founded in 1979 and produced by students at Harvard University. It publishes analysis and interviews on global politics, economics, security, and policy, and is read by students, academics, and practitioners around the world.
The HIR Academic Writing Contest extends that mission to pre-college students. It asks young writers to do what the journal itself does: take a serious question about the world and argue a clear, evidence-based position on it—then, for the strongest entries, defend that position aloud before the journal’s judges on Defense Day.
About this guide
What we do—and what we are not
This site is an independent educational guide. We gather the contest’s rules, prompts, rubric, and deadlines into one clear English-language resource, and we offer optional coaching for students who want help building a stronger essay.
We are an education provider, not the contest organizer. We do not run the contest, score essays, or decide awards. For official registration and the final word on rules, students should always confirm with the organizer.
Why it matters
Why argument-driven writing is worth the effort
Most school writing asks students to summarize. This contest asks them to argue. That shift—from reporting what is known to defending a position a thoughtful person could reject—is exactly the skill that selective universities, and serious public life, reward.
Writing 800 to 1,200 disciplined words on global culture in the digital era, multipolar security, or the politics of technology forces a student to read widely, weigh evidence, and structure a case. Defending it on Defense Day forces them to understand it. Win or place or not, students leave the contest as sharper readers and clearer writers.
Our editorial standards
How we keep this guide accurate
Primary sources
We base every fact on the contest’s official materials and published rules, and we link students back to the organizer for registration.
Updated each season
Prompts and deadlines change by cycle. We review and refresh this guide each season, and date-stamp what can shift.
No false authority
We never imply we are the organizer or that we can influence results. Where something must be confirmed officially, we say so.