Jussi Hanhimäki

Jussi M. Hanhimäki (born 3 February 1965 in Espoo) is a Finnish historian, specializing in the history of the Cold War, American foreign policy, transatlantic relations, international organizations and refugees. He is the incoming inaugural Eleanor Rathbone Professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Oxford.

Background Hanhimäki is currently professor and the chair of the department of international history and politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, in Geneva. His book The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy has been acclaimed by his academic peers. In the U.S. media, however, its reception was lukewarm. In 2006, Hanhimäki was named Finland Distinguished Professor by the Academy of Finland. He earned his MA, American History (1987) and Ph.D., International History (1993) at Boston University, where his doctoral advisor was Arnold A. Offner. His BA in History is from Tampere University in 1986. He has previously taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Bishop's University, Harvard University and the London School of Economics.

In June 2026, Hanhimäki was announced to have been elected as the inaugural Eleanor Rathbone Professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Oxford. He will take up the chair and its associated fellowship at St Antony's College in January 2027.

Work Hanhimäki has published or edited a dozen books. Among these, The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy (2004) was awarded the Bernath Lecture Prize by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the leading learned society for the academic study of the history of United States foreign policy. He is one of the founding editors of the journal Cold War History and edited, together with Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts (2003, 2004). His articles have appeared in Cold War History, Diplomacy and Statecraft, Diplomatic History, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Politique étrangère, and Ulkopolitiikka. He has held visiting fellowships at LSE IDEAS, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Harvard University. He has received major grants for research from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Academy of Finland and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.