Barbara J. Keys is a historian of U.S. power and international relations, with a particular interest in how individual actors shape political decision-making at the highest levels.

She has written widely on the exercise of American power in the twentieth century, including on Henry Kissinger’s diplomacy, the role of the diplomat in international affairs, and international human rights policies. Her current work extends these concerns to a wider readership in a major reinterpretation of Kissinger as a figure whose influence was inseparable from the construction and management of his reputation.

A professor of US and international history at Durham University, she received her PhD in History from Harvard University and previously taught at the University of Melbourne. She has held fellowships at Stanford, Harvard, and the Leibniz Institute in Mainz, and served as President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.