Mershon Center for International Security Studies

Check out Mershon Center Hayes Chair in National Security Christopher McKnight Nichols talking to Don Wildman of the American History Hit podcast about how the US defined a new world order at the start of the 20th century.

What Made America? Birth Of A Superpower | American History Hit Listen to What Made America? Birth Of A Superpower from American History Hit. At the start of the 20th century after victory in the Spanish-American War, the US found itself as a colonial power. How did it decide NOT to follow down the same road as the imperial powers of Europe afterwards? Today Pro...

Read how Christopher McKnight Nichols, Mershon Center Hayes Chair in National Security, is leading a new conversation on US grand strategy.

Leading a new conversation on US grand strategy What has been, is, and should be U.S. grand strategy?

Peter Mansoor, Mershon Center Mason Chair, talked to Military Times about whether the US military can preserve decades of wartime experience.

Can the US military preserve decades of wartime experience? Thousands of post-9/11 veterans are reaching retirement. Whether the lessons they learned during two decades of combat will be retained remains to be seen.

Christopher Gelpi, Mershon Center senior faculty fellow and Arts and Sciences at Ohio State professor of political science, published the Opinion piece "Operation Epic Fail: We aren't done paying for Trump- created Iran crisis" in The Columbus Dispatch

Operation Epic Fail: We aren't done paying for Trump- created Iran crisis| Opinion The real lesson of this disastrous war is that there are no shortcuts to security. Bombastic threats only look impressive on cable news.

Christopher McKnight Nichols, Mershon Center Hayes Chair, talked to the The New York Times about the world's first billionaire and the world's first trillionaire.

Musk Is the World’s First Trillionaire. Who Was the First Billionaire? (Gift Article) John D. Rockefeller, the Gilded Age oil baron, became America’s first billionaire in 1916. Like Elon Musk’s ascension, the milestone made headlines.

A recently published article in The New Yorker by Ruth Marcus discussed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ views against Progressivism and Progressives. Christopher McKnight Nichols, Mershon Center Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies and Arts and Sciences at Ohio State Professor of History, was quoted in the story. An excerpt from the article is below.

Christopher Nichols, a historian of the Progressive Era at the Ohio State University, said of Thomas’s account, “It’s a deeply problematic reduction of Progressivism to its most negative elements,” including racism and support for eugenics. Thomas’s speech, Nichols continued, “absolutely mistakes and conflates figures like Stalin and Hi**er and Mussolini as Progressives, none of whom would have defined themselves as such, or were defined in their eras as such.

Read the full story

Clarence Thomas’s Distorted View of Progressivism In 1991, during his confirmation hearings, Clarence Thomas assured senators that he would be an impartial jurist. In a recent speech, the Justice made clear that he views Progressivism, past and present, as anti-American.

Congratulations to Lydia Walker, Assistant Professor, Myers Chair in Global Military History, and Mershon Center affiliate, on being selected as one of five finalists in the History category for the 2026 American Council of Learned-Societies (ACLS) Open Access Book Prize and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award. Eligible historical works include examinations of all eras, geographical regions, peoples, and/or cultural developments through any theoretical lens.

Supported by Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin's Arcadia Fund, these prizes recognize and reward the authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative, and open humanities and social science books published from 2019 to 2024.

Join us May 29-30 for "Rethinking American Grand Strategy," a conference that brings together exceptional scholars and thinkers, eminent figures, and rising stars to rethink the past and present of American grand strategy. In a series of innovative talks and original presentations the panelists seek to construct a rich account of how grand strategy has expanded and continues to operate in the U.S. role in the world in the twenty-first century. Free and open to all, breakfast and lunch provided, registration requested.

Rethinking American Grand Strategy | Mershon Center for International Security Studies Co-OrganizersChristopher McKnight Nichols - Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies and Professor of History, The Ohio State University Andrew Preston - W.L. Lyons Brown Jr.

Today the Mershon Center at Arts and Sciences at Ohio State was honored to welcome Danish Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen. Thank you for sharing your expertise and insights with our affiliates.

Congrats to Yiğit Akin, Associate Professor of History and Mershon affiliate, on receiving a 2026 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, one of the university’s most prestigious teaching awards.

2026 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching recipients announced | Office of Faculty Affairs Ten faculty members were recently notified of their 2026 awards through surprise announcements led by senior university leaders.