Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson is a military historian whose teaching and research centers on the Second World War. Since arriving at the University of Notre Dame in 2019, he has taught a variety of courses on military history in the modern era, including The Road to War, 1919-1941, The Second World War: A Global History, War in Modern History, and the Military History of the Space Race. In 2025-2026, he served as the Acting Director of the O'Brien Notre Dame International Security Center; he co-founded and serves as the co-director of Notre Dame’s International Security Studies minor.

 

His research focuses on the origins and conduct of war, and the maintenance of peace. He is the author or editor of three books. His first monograph, The Faustian Bargain: Secret Soviet-German Military Cooperation in the Interwar Period, was published by Oxford University Press and was awarded the Society for Military History's 2022 Distinguished Book Award for best first book. His recently completed edited volume, A Violent Peace: A Global Military History of the Interwar Period, won the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award in 2026. He is currently working on a biography of General Matthew Bunker Ridgway for Oxford University Press, exploring the evolution of American military strategy and commitment to collective security through Ridgway’s career.

 

His research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Program, the H.F. Guggenheim Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, the American in the World Consortium, and the Truman Library Institute, among others.

 

His writing has also appeared in, among other places, The Journal of Military History, the American Historical Review, the Global Military Studies Review, Technology and Culture, and the Journal of Slavic Military Studies. He has also published work, been quoted by, or appeared on a variety of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CNN, C-SPAN, The Chicago Tribune, The National Interest, The Claremont Review of Books, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, NPR, The Hill, and The Christian Science Monitor.

 

He received his Ph.D. in history from the Ohio State University in 2016.