New Chair of Political Science

April 11, 2011

New Chair of Political Science

Richard Herrmann, Social and Behavioral Sciences Distinguished Professor and director, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, has been appointed chair of the Department of Political Science, for a four-year term, effective July 1, 2011.

Herrmann specializes in international relations, security and conflict studies, political psychology, and politics in the Middle East and Russia. He has written on the role of perception and imagery in foreign policy and the importance of nationalism and identity politics. He is the author or editor of three books and more than 40 articles in such journals as American Political Science Review, International Organization, International Security, and World Politics.Herrmann has been a frequent visitor to the Middle East, lecturing and conducting research in Israel and the West Bank, as well as in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates.

From 1989 to 1991, Herrmann served on Secretary of State James Baker’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and from 1991-1996, he served as coeditor of International Studies Quarterly, the flagship journal of the International Studies Association. In 1996-97 he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations of New York task force that produced the book Differentiated Containment: Rethinking U.S. Policy in the Gulf.

Herrmann received his PhD from University of Pittsburgh in 1981.