Christopher McKnight Nichols is Professor of History and Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, at The Ohio State University.

Nichols specializes in the history of the United States and its relationship to the rest of the world, particularly in the areas of isolationism, internationalism, and globalization, as well as the role of ideas and ideologies in U.S. foreign relations. He is also an expert on modern U.S. intellectual, political, and cultural history, from the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1880-1920) through the present. His new book projects include the historical context for the U.S.'s major grand strategic challenges in the 21st Century, the election of 1952 and the transformation U.S. foreign and domestic policy, new directions in international history, new perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance, and a "long 20th century" global history of anti-imperialism.