The Mershon Center welcomes a new visiting scholar this year -- or perhaps we should say we are welcoming him back.

Charles F. Hermann (Chuck), now at Texas A&M, has a long history at The Ohio State University, where he was a member of the Department of Political Science, and at the Mershon Center, where he served first as associate director beginning in 1970 and then as director from 1980 to 1995.

After leaving Ohio State, Hermann became founding director of the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where he now is the Brent Scowcroft Chair in International Policy Studies and International Affairs.

Hermann will speak at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15, on "Critical Foreign Policy Decisions: Continue or Change Course?" Registration is now open for this event.

As a professor of international affairs his expertise is in American and comparative foreign policy, crisis management and simulation. In 2012 he edited When Things Go Wrong: Foreign Policy Decision Making Under Adverse Feedback. Previous books include Violent Conflict in the 21st Century, The American Defense Annual, New Directions in Foreign Policy, International Crises, and Why Nations Act.

He is active professionally having been president of the International Studies Association in 1989-90 and was honored as a distinguished scholar by that organization in 2000. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York) and has served on the editorial board of the journal Foreign Policy Analysis.

During 1991-92, Hermann was a fellow in the PEW Case program of the Kennedy School at Harvard University. In 1969 and 1970, he served on the National Security Council Staff under Henry Kissinger. Before that, he taught at Princeton University.