About

CHIOS has been founded on one basic premise: Europe and the strained transatlantic community urgently need a renewal of deep, bold and historically informed strategic thinking about international order if they want to cope with and thrive beyond the current “polycrisis”. They are faced with a fundamental challenge: not only to rebuild the eroding Euro-Atlantic peace order but also to create a more sustainable and inclusive world order for the 21st century.

To foster such a process of renewal is the guiding aim of the Centre for History, Strategy and International Order at Helmut-Schmidt-University. Designed as a new strategic hub, CHIOS encourages substantive transnational research, informed public debate, and dialogue between historical experts, strategists and decision-makers. With a special emphasis on Northern Europe, it pursues this mission in close cooperation with the University of Copenhagen, the University of Florence and a global alliance of strategic partners.

CHIOS Directors

Michael Jonas

Prof Michael Jonas, PhD 2009 (Univ. Helsinki), habilitation 2016 (Helmut-Schmidt-Univ.), is a modern historian interested in the history of international politics, diplomacy, international law, war, and conflict. Educated in Berlin and Helsinki, he has worked on the military, political, and diplomatic history of both world wars, small states in international politics, and forms of international organization and empire. Read more

Patrick O. Cohrs

Patrick O. Cohrs is Professor of International History at the University of Florence. He specialises in the history of modern international politics, focusing on war and peace, security and learning, and the transformation of the Atlantic and global order in the long twentieth century. Before coming to Florence, Patrick O. Cohrs was Associate Professor of History and International Relations at Yale University, where he also co-founded the Yale International History Workshop. Read more

Haakon A. Ikonomou

Haakon A. Ikonomou is a tenure track assistant professor at the Saxo-Institute at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH). A historian of international organizations, internationalism, global governance, international bureaucracy, and diplomacy, he takes inspiration from digital, global, prosopographical, biographical, institutional, social, and oral history approaches. Read more

Steering Group

Prof. Arne Westad

Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs, Yale University

Prof. Marina Henke

Director, Centre for International Security, Hertie School, Berlin

Prof. John Ikenberry

Milbank Prof. of Politics and Int. Affairs, Princeton University

Prof. Sunniva Engh

Professor of Modern History, University of Oslo

Prof. Eckart Conze

History Department, University of Marburg

Prof. Francis Gavin

Director, Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, SAIS

Prof. Morten Rasmussen

CEMES & META-UN Chair, Saxo Inst., University of Copenhagen

Prof. Jürgen Osterhammel

fm. Director, Centre for Global History, University of Konstanz

Prof. Jeremi Suri

Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs, UT Austin

Prof. Sandrine Kott

Professor of European History, University of Geneva

Prof. Brendan Simms

Director, Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge

Prof. Alanna O'Malley

Institute for History, Leiden University

Prof. Louis Clerc

Department of Contemporary History, University of Turku

Prof. Klaus Beckmann

President, Helmut-Schmidt-University

Prof. Rasmus Mariager

Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen

CHIOS AREOPAGUS

  • Prof. Christian Meier, University of Munich, Honorary Chairman
  • Prof. Margaret MacMillan, fm. Warden, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford
  • Prof. Paul M. Kennedy, J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History, Yale University
  • Prof. Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University
  • Prof. Rosemary Foot, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford 
  • Prof. John Darwin, Nuffield College, University of Oxford 
  • Prof. Jussi Hanhimäki, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva
  • Prof. Pierre Grosser, Sciences Po, Paris
  • Prof. em. Bernd Wegner, Department of History, Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg
  • Prof. Samuel F. Wells, fm. Associate Director, The Wilson Center, Washington, DC

CHIOS CIRCLE OF EXPERTS

  • Prof. John Bew, Department of War Studies, King’s College London 
  • Prof. Hal Brands, H.A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs, J. Hopkins SAIS
  • Prof. Marco Bresciani, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Florence 
  • Prof. Bruno Cabanes, Dunn Chair in Modern Military History, Ohio State University 
  • Dr. Kristin Cook, University of London 
  • Prof. Anne Deighton, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford
  • Prof. Mario Del Pero, Sciences Po Paris
  • Dr. Andrew Ehrhardt, AJ Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, King’s College London
  • Dr. Francesca Frassineti, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
  • Prof. Stella Ghervas, History Department, UCLA 
  • Prof. Erik Goldstein, Boston University
  • Prof. Hans Gutbrod, Ilia State University, Tbilisi 
  • Prof. John Harper, J. Hopkins SAIS Bologna
  • Prof. Andrew Hurrell, Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Changing Global Orders 
  • Prof. Peter Jackson, University of Glasgow
  • Dr. Nicholas Kaderbhai, AJ Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, King’s College London
  • Prof. Bernard Keo, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva
  • Prof. Jörn Leonhard, History Department, University of Freiburg
  • Dr. Jade McGlynn, Department of War Studies, King’s College London
  • Dr. Aaron McKeil, LSE Ideas, LSE
  • Dr. Thomas Mills, History Department, Lancaster University
  • Prof. Alexandre Moreli, Institute of International Relations, University of São Paolo
  • Prof. David Petruccelli, Dartmouth College
  • Dr. Marine Pierre, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
  • Prof. Andrew Preston, Edward Stettinius Professor of History, University of Virginia 
  • Prof. Sergey Radchenko, W.E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor, J. Hopkins SAIS Bologna 
  • Prof. Steffen Rimner, School of History, University College Dublin
  • Dr. Maeve Ryan, Centre for Grand Strategy, King’s College London 
  • Prof. Daniel Sargent, History Department and Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
  • Prof. Miroslav Šedivý, Institute of History, University of Pardubice
  • Prof. Margarita Šešelgytė, Institute of International Relations, Vilnius University
  • Dr. Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, Danish Institute for International Studies
  • Prof. Benedict Stuchtey, University of Marburg
  • Prof. Alexandra Sukalo, Clements Center for National Security, UT Texas Austin 
  • Dr. Boyd van Dijk, Research Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
  • Prof. Kenneth Weisbrode, History, Department, Bilkent University Ankara
  • Prof. Vladislav Zubok, Department of International History, LSE 

KEY PARTNERS

Partnerships

CHIOS is based at Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg and a joint flagship initiative with the University of Copenhagen cooperating with the University of Florence and other international partners to foster historically informed strategies and understandings of international order.

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