The Mershon Center for International Security Studies is a

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

at the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

. The current director is Dorothy Noyes.

History

The Mershon Center was founded in 1952 upon the death of

Ralph D. Mershon Ralph Davenport Mershon (1868–1952) was an electrical engineer and inventor. His company Mershon Condensers was a successful manufacturer of electrolytic capacitors for the expanding radio market of the 1920s. He is known for the Mershon Audito ...

, an alumnus of the school, who left funds to the university for the establishment of a research institute dedicated to the fields of international relations and security. Many schools founded similar centers due to the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

such as the

Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies (SIWPS) is a research center that is part of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York. It was founded in 1951 by President of Columbia Dwight D. Eisenho ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. The first director of the Mershon Center was Edgar S. Furniss Jr., who was appointed in 1960. However, he would die unexpectedly only six years later. Fellows throughout the years have included

Francis Beer Francis A. Beer is an American professor emeritus of political science, University of Colorado at Boulder. His research focuses on war and peace. Honors and awards include listings in Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in America, as well as o ...

, Erika Bourguignon, Ofer Feldman, Azar Gat, Margaret Hermann, David P. Houghton,

Kimberly Marten Kimberly Marten is an author and scholar specializing in international security, foreign policy, Russia, and environmental politics. She held the 5-year-term Ann Whitney Olin Professorship of Political Science at Barnard College from 2013 to 2018, ...

, Robert J. McMahon, Margaret Mills,

John Mueller John E. Mueller (born June 21, 1937) is an American political scientist in the field of international relations as well as a scholar of the history of dance. He is recognized for his ideas concerning "the banality of ethnic war" and the theory t ...

Mary Ellen O'Connell Mary Ellen O'Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and a research professor of international dispute resolution at Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace in Studies. Since j ...

Allan Silverman Allan Jay Silverman (born 1955) is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the Ohio State University. He is also a Faculty Fellow at Mershon Center for International Security Studies. Silverman is known for his expertise on ancien ...

Alexander Stephan Alexander Stephan (August 16, 1946 – May 29, 2009) was a specialist in German literature and area studies. He was a professor, Ohio Eminent Scholar, and Senior Fellow of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State Uni ...

. The Mershon Center houses scholars from a variety of fields, including doctoral students, visiting fellows, and permanent faculty affiliates.

Furniss Book Award

In 1982, then-director Charles F. Hermann initiated a book award in honor of the first director of the center, Edgar S. Furniss Jr. The award is presented annually to a scholar whose "...first book makes an exceptional contribution to the study of national and international security." Notable recipients have included:

Harry G. Summers Jr. Harry G. Summers Jr. (May 6, 1932 – November 14, 1999) is best known as the author of an analysis of the Vietnam War, ''On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War'' (1982). An infantry colonel in the US Army, he had served as a squad l ...

(1982), John Mearsheimer (1983),

Barry Posen Barry Ross Posen (born July 13, 1952) is Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT and the director of MIT's Security Studies Program. An expert in the field of security studies, he currently serves on the editorial boards of the j ...

(1984),

Bruce G. Blair Bruce Gentry Blair (November 16, 1947 – July 19, 2020) was an American nuclear security expert, research scholar, national security expert, the author of articles and books on nuclear topics, and a television show producer. Education and backgro ...

(1986),

Andrew Krepinevich Andrew Francis Krepinevich Jr. (born 13 February 1950) is a defense policy analyst who is a distinguished senior fellow at (and former longtime president of) the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Army service Born in New York Stat ...

(1987),

Stephen Walt Stephen Martin Walt (born July 2, 1955) is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International relations at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University and a political scientist. A member of the realist school of international relatio ...

(1988), Aaron Friedberg (1989), Stephen Peter Rosen (1992),

Michael E. Brown Michael E. Brown (born June 5, 1965) is an American astronomer, who has been professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2003. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), includin ...

(1993),

James Goldgeier James M. Goldgeier is a professor of international relations at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C., where he served as dean from 2011 to 2017. He became dean in August 2011. Previously he was employed a ...

(1995), Lars-Erik Cederman (1998), Robert D. English (2000),

Matthew Connelly Matthew James Connelly (born November 25, 1967) is an American professor of international and global history at Columbia University. His areas of expertise include the global Cold War, official secrecy, population control, and decolonization. He ...

(2002), Benjamin Valentino (2004), Michael C. Horowitz (2010), and

Keren Yarhi-Milo Keren Yarhi-Milo is a political scientist specializing in the study of interstate communication, crisis bargaining, reputation and credibility, and the psychology of leaders and decision makers. She is the dean of the School of International and Pu ...

(2014).

Directors

* Edgar S. Furniss Jr. (1960–1966) * James A. Robinson (1966–1970) * Richard C. Snyder (1970–1980) * Charles F. Hermann (1980–1995) *

Richard Ned Lebow Richard Ned Lebow is an American political scientist best known for his work in international relations, political psychology, classics and philosophy of science. He is Professor of International Political Theory at the Department of War Studies, ...

(1996–2000) * Richard Herrmann (2002–2011) * J. Craig Jenkins (2011–2015) * Christopher Gelpi (2018–2022) * Dorothy Noyes (2022–present)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mershon Center For International Security Studies Ohio State University University research institutes 1952 establishments in Ohio

History

Furniss Book Award

Directors

See also

References

External links