"Meet the Experts"

(teaching)

Richard Herrmann: We don't have Democrats and Republicans here, per se. We have all kinds of scholars. We have all kinds of theoretical and political perspectives. I have conservative colleagues and I have liberal colleagues. I have colleagues who think we emphasize terrorism too much and colleagues who think we emphasize it not enough. And I see that my job is to be sure that the intellectual climate here is open to all these points of view and that what we get here is the best possible scholarly research and intellectual discussion of these points of view so that all of our work moves forward. And our students are also encouraged to learn how to challenge us and themselves, to really investigate what they think they know and why they think they know it. And that's one of the great advantages of having the kind of endowment that Ralph Mershon left to Ohio State University. It gives us a real freedom and independence to pursue the ideas that we just think are true. And of course none of us see truth exactly the way here in this building. We tend to find faculty who are often the most productive in the areas related to national security. They come to us from many different disciplines. To give you an example, Peter Mansoor. He did his Ph.D. here more than 10 years ago and has made his career in the military for more than 25 years in the U.S. Army. He was the executive officer to the multinational forces in Iraq, erving with Gen. David Petraeus. And his newest book, Baghdad at Sunrise, recounts his own experience as a commander in Iraq

Peter Mansoor: Baghdad at Sunrise is more than just a mililtary memoir. It's a firsthand look at the Iraq Way, through the lens of a brigade combat leader, what went right and what went wrong in that first crucial year in Iraq. The first class I'm going to teach is a graduate seminar on the history of counterinsurgency warfare from 1899 to the present. I think I have a lot to bring to the table in that regard not just as a historian but also as a practitioner of coutnerinsurgency warfare. And I think the students are pretty excited.

(conversation)

John Mueller: Certainly one of the strengths of the Mershon Center is, you have people in history, you have people in psychology, you have people in economics, you have people in law, as well as political science, sociology, and so forth. Frequently people like that can really make you think differently, because the whole way people look at the world is substantially different sometimes. It makes you figure--either, change your view of how the world is or you have to figure out what you're thinking about to make it clearer to them, how you're doing it. So the exercise is a very productive one, from your own standpoint. One of the reasons for coming to Ohio State and Mershon was the amount of things going on at Mershon, the colleagues, and also we have sort of continuous lectures and conferences and things. I've done both sort of academic stuff and a fair amount of policy-oriented books and articles and things like that, and op-eds. I was on the Daily Show when my book came out, which was really a good experience.

RH: I think Ohio State has arguably as good a military history group as any in the United States. I think we also have one of the best groups studying international relations, international security, and political science, as anywhere in the United States. And consequently, the combination of these resources along with this center creates a very unusual nucleus of expertise here.

Peter Mansoor is the founder of the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center. Now an Ohio State professor, Mansoor has firsthand experience as a military official, most recently having served as Executive Officer to Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq.

An Ohio State alum, Mansoor returned to his alma mater in 2007. Students will benefit from his firsthand knowledge of "what went right and wrong in that first year in Iraq," the subject of his book, Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq.

John Mueller is a political scientist who believes world leaders overreact to national security threats, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation. His book credits include Atomic Obsession: Reactions and Overreactions to Terrorism and Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them.

Mueller has spent decades studying international politics, foreign policy, defense policy, and terrorism; his rare point of view has made him a coveted guest on TV news programs.

The common bond between them?

Ohio State's Mershon Center for International Security Studies.

“We have all kinds of different theoretical and political perspectives. I have conservative colleagues and I have liberal colleagues. I have colleagues who think we emphasize terrorism too much and colleagues who think we emphasize it not enough. ”
—Richard Herrmann, Mershon Center director

The Mershon Center is focused on studying the major questions of the day: war, peace, terrorism, and transfers of power, among others. The center supports faculty from across campus, including historians, political scientists, sociologists, and experts in women's studies. Last year, the center supported the research projects of 27 faculty in 17 departments. It gave 17 graduate students travel and research grants and funded 13 undergraduates studying abroad. Faculty associated with the Mershon published 20 books and 157 articles and were cited by media more than 400 times.

"We have all kinds of different theoretical and political perspectives," says Richard Herrmann, the center's director. "I have conservative colleagues and I have liberal colleagues. I have colleagues who think we emphasize terrorism too much and colleagues who think we emphasize it not enough."

"Our students are also encouraged to learn how to challenge us and themselves, to really investigate what they think they know and why they think they know it," Herrmann says.

Being surrounded by such different points of view "can make you think differently," Mueller says. "The whole way people look at the world is substantially different sometimes."

The result of all these different perspectives, Herrmann says, is a fiercely independent think tank.

"What we get here is the best possible scholarly research and intellectual discussion of these points of view so that all of our work moves forward," Herrmann says.

"Ohio State has arguably as good a military history group as any in the United States," he says." I think we also have one of the best groups studying international relations, international security, and political science. The combination of these resources along with this center creates a very unusual nucleus of expertise here."