Robert J. McMahon

About

Robert J. McMahon is the Ralph D. Mershon Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at The Ohio State University. He joined the department in Fall 2005 and has previously taught at the University of Florida from 1982 to 2005, as well as held visiting positions at the University of Virginia and University College Dublin. His expertise lies in the history of U.S. foreign relations, with a focus on diplomatic history, human conflict, peace, and diplomacy. Professor McMahon is the author of several significant works, including 'Colonialism and Cold War: The United States and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence, 1945-49,' 'The Cold War on the Periphery: the United States, India, and Pakistan,' and 'The Limits of Empire: The United States and Southeast Asia since World War II.' He has also served as president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in 2000. His research and teaching focus on American history since 1877, U.S. foreign relations, and diplomatic history, contributing to the understanding of U.S. involvement in global conflicts and diplomacy.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Political science
• History
• Physics
• Atomic physics

Selected publications

• The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021-02-25 · 62 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  <italic>The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction</italic> discusses the Cold War, which dominated international life from the end of the Second World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall. But how did the dispute begin, and why did it move from its origins in post-war Europe to encompass virtually every corner of the globe? This VSI considers these questions and more, providing a truly international history of the Cold War and examining its enduring legacy. It draws on the most recent scholarship an…

  PublisherDOI

• Molecular structure determination: Equilibrium structure of pyrimidine (<i>m</i>-C4H4N2) from rotational spectroscopy (<i>r</i><i>e</i>SE) and high-level<i>ab initio</i>calculation (<i>r</i><i>e</i>) agree within the uncertainty of experimental measurement

  The Journal of Chemical Physics · 2020-03-12 · 60 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The pure rotational spectrum of pyrimidine (m-C4H4N2), the meta-substituted dinitrogen analog of benzene, has been studied in the millimeter-wave region from 235 GHz to 360 GHz. The rotational spectrum of the ground vibrational state has been assigned and fit to yield accurate rotational and distortion constants. Over 1700 distinct transitions were identified for the normal isotopologue in its ground vibrational state and least-squares fit to a partial sextic S-reduced Hamiltonian. Transitions f…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Heavy‐Atom Tunneling Through Crossing Potential Energy Surfaces: Cyclization of a Triplet 2‐Formylarylnitrene to a Singlet 2,1‐Benzisoxazole

  Angewandte Chemie International Edition · 2020-06-18 · 38 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Not long ago, the occurrence of quantum mechanical tunneling (QMT) chemistry involving atoms heavier than hydrogen was considered unreasonable. Contributing to the shift of this paradigm, we present here the discovery of a new and distinct heavy‐atom QMT reaction. Triplet syn‐2‐formyl‐3‐fluorophenylnitrene, generated in argon matrices by UV‐irradiation of an azide precursor, was found to spontaneously cyclize to singlet 4‐fluoro‐2,1‐benzisoxazole. Monitoring the transformation by IR spe…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968

  Journal of American History · 2024-11-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• <i>Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia</i> by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg

  The Journal of Interdisciplinary History · 2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Eisenberg delivers a painstakingly detailed and devastating account of the Vietnam War policies of President Nixon. She joins a crowded field of study, to be sure. Historians, political scientists, journalists, memoirists, and others have probed nearly every aspect of the conflict in Indochina, much as they have scrutinized in granular detail the peculiar partnership between Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger, his national security adviser and top foreign policy aide. Yet Eisenberg manages to surpass…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Organic Chemistry in Harsh Reaction Environments

  NSF · $565k · 2017–2021

• NIH Grant F32DK009628

  NIH · $56k

• Organic Chemistry in Harsh Reaction Environments

  NSF · $545k · 2014–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Brian J. Esselman

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  185 shared

• R. Claude Woods

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  105 shared

• John F. Stanton

  University of Florida

  79 shared

• Maria A. Zdanovskaia

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  61 shared

• Samuel M. Kougias

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  44 shared

• Robert L. Kuczkowski

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  38 shared

• Robert J. Halter

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  28 shared

• Jens‐Uwe Grabow

  Leibniz University Hannover

  27 shared

Education

• Ph.D. Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

  University of California Los Angeles

  1985

• B.S. Chemistry

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1980

Awards & honors

• President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign…

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