PROFILE FOR CHARLES F. HERMANN

President George H.W. Bush selected Texas A&M University as the site for his Presidential Library. As part of the Library complex, the University established the George Bush School of Government and Public Service, which admitted its first students in September 1997.

Charles (Chuck) Hermann was hired in July 1995 as the founding Director of the new school. Prior to the School’s opening, Prof. Hermann was involved in establishing the Bush School's first masters degree program (Public Service and Administration), recruiting a faculty, selecting a first class, and providing oversight for the School’s new Center for Presidential Studies and Center for Public Leadership Studies. He also led a successful $20 million development campaign for the School.

After  the Bush School became a separate unit within the University in September 1999 and Robert Gates (former head of the CIA) was brought in as the first Dean of the Bush School, Hermann became the Bush School's Associate Dean for Academic Programs and developed the school's second masters degree program (International Affairs). During these years, Hermann held the Brent Scowcroft Chair of International Policy Studies.

Dr. Hermann holds a PhD from Northwestern University and a BA degree from DePauw University in political science. After graduating from Northwestern, he taught at Princeton University. In 1969 and 1970, Hermann served on the National Security Council staff under Henry Kissinger. From 1970-1995, Prof. Hermann was a professor in the Political Science department at Ohio State University. He served as director of Ohio State University's Mershon Center, a research center dedicated to national security and foreign policy issues, from 1980-1995, and as Ohio State's acting vice provost for international affairs. During 1991-1992, Hermann was a Fellow in the Pew Case Program of the Kennedy School at Harvard University. 

Prof. Hermann's expertise is in U.S. and comparative foreign policy, crisis management, and decision making. At Texas A&M and at Ohio State, he taught graduate courses in U.S. foreign policy and comparative foreign policy. He  also taught use of the case method at the Summer Institute of Political Psychology at Ohio State. 

In 2002, Prof. Hermann received the Bush School Faculty Achievement Award. In 2001, he was honored with the International Studies Association's Foreign Policy Distinguished Senior Scholar Award. In 2000, the graduating class of Bush School students voted him the Silver Star Award for most valuable faculty member.

Dr. Hermann was also honored by his selection as an Honorary Pallbearer at the 6 December 2018 funeral of former President George H.W. Bush. Upon his retirement from Texas A&M in August 2019, Dr. Hermann was awarded the status of Professor Emeritus by Texas A&M Unversity. 

Two of Dr. Hermann's most recent books are Called to Serve: The Bush School of Government and Public Service (a 20 year history of the Bush School, co-authored with Sally Dee Wade) and When Things Go Wrong: Foreign Policy Decision Making under Adverse Feedback. Other books include the American Defense Annual and New Directions in Foreign Policy (co-edited with James Rosenau and Charles Kegley).

Hermann is also the author or co-author of dozens of articles and book chapters on a wide range of issues related to foreign policy and international affair, appearing in such journals and publications as American Political Science Review, International Encyclopedia of the Social Science, International Studies Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of Foreign Relations. He has also published articles on Soviet decisionmaking (American Political Science Review), hostage taking and presidential stress (in Reich, Origins of Terrorism) and sources of change in foreign policy (International Studies Quarterly).  

Dr. Hermann has many years of professional service at the local, national and international levels. He was president of the International Studies Association in 1989-1990.  He has been a long-time  member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York) and the International Institute of Strategic Studies (London). He also completed a term on the Council of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research -- an international cooperative of universities for the collection and dissemination of social science data. 

Dr. Hermann has also been involved in community volunteer activities for many years. He was president of OPAS (Opera and Performing Arts Society) at Texas A&M. In 2003-2004, he was program chair for the Bryan Rotary Club, and club president in 2004-2005. In 2005, he was one of the distinguished citizen honorees of the Brazos Valley African-American National Heritage Society. He serves on the board, and has been president for two terms, of the Brazos Valley Symphony Society. He has also been a long-time member of the board of Project Unity.

On his retirement, Dr. Hermann and his wife Dr. Lorraine Eden Hermann decided to give back to the University by establishing the Lorraine and Charles Hermann Endowed Excellence Fellowship (Hermann Fellows) program in the Bush School. The Fellowship is designed to provide financial support to second-year Bush School students who have demonstrated exceptional academic and leadership skills during the first year of their two-year degree program but had not received a large scholarship at the time they were admitted to the School. The first award (to a student in the Masters in International Affairs program) was given in May 2020, and now each year two students in the Master's in International Afffairs program are selected by Bush School faculty to be Hermann Fellows. Individuals who would like to contribute to the Fellows program are invited to make tax-deductible gifts through the Texas A&M Foundation (Account 458539).