Peter L. Hahn B.A., 1982, Ohio Wesleyan University; M.A., 1984, Ph.D., 1987, Vanderbilt University.

An accomplished research scholar, Professor Hahn has published seven books on the history of American diplomacy in the Middle East, most recently Missions Accomplished? The United States and Iraq since World War I, as well as scores of articles, essays, and reviews.  A second edition of his best selling textbook, Crisis and Crossfire: The United States and the Middle East since 1945, is scheduled for publication in 2024.  Professor Hahn has conducted research in the archives of the United States, Israel, Britain, and France; delivered scholarly papers and invited lectures in eleven countries; consulted with policymakers in the U.S. Departments of State, Defense, and Justice and with senior officers of the Ohio National Guard; and given interviews to the media on five continents. 

Professor Hahn previously served as dean of Arts and Humanities in 2015-21 and as chair of the History Department in 2006-15.  In 2002-15, he served as executive director of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), a professional society of some 1,400 members residing in 44 countries.  He was elected by the membership to be president of SHAFR in 2018.  In 2010, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland appointed Professor Hahn to a five-year term on the State of Ohio’s War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission.

Professor Hahn has advised or co-advised more than three dozen doctoral dissertations in U.S. foreign relations history. He has taught thousands of undergraduates in courses on the history of U.S. foreign relations and modern U.S. history. He co-launched an undergraduate study abroad program on World War II and its impact on the modern world.

Professor Hahn earned his B.A. summa cum laude from Ohio Wesleyan University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, where he defended his dissertation with distinction.  He won the 1998 Stuart L. Bernath Lecture Prize (for excellence in teaching and scholarship), and in 1995 he held a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in Jerusalem.