Mershon Center for International Security Studies

09/02/2026

Madhumita Dutta, associate professor of Geography & Mershon affiliate, published an article in The Wire about Jahlma Nallah, a glacial stream that floods in the sun. This phenomenon, affecting thousands of rural mountain households, local economy and ecology every summer, has no well-researched global parallels to explain what is happening in this remote part of the Indian Himalayas.

This phenomenon, affecting thousands of rural mountain households, local economy and ecology every summer, has no well-researched global parallels to explain what is happening in this remote part of the Indian Himalayas.

07/23/2026

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.

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...

07/10/2026

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

What has been, is, and should be U.S. grand strategy?

06/25/2026

Peter Mansoor, Mershon Center Mason Chair, talked to Military Times about whether the US military can 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.

06/18/2026

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

The real lesson of this disastrous war is that there are no shortcuts to security. Bombastic threats only look impressive on cable news.

06/15/2026

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.

John D. Rockefeller, the Gilded Age oil baron, became America’s first billionaire in 1916. Like Elon Musk’s ascension, the milestone made headlines.

05/22/2026

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

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.

05/21/2026

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.

05/14/2026

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.

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.

05/13/2026

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.