Joep Schenk is assistant professor in the History of International Relations. His research focuses on 19th- and 20th-century European history in a global context, at the intersection of security and international environmental policy. Specifically, Schenk is interested in how and why, since the 19th century, scholars, experts and diplomats have framed the environment as an (international) security issue, which extraordinary measures or interventions could or could not be legitimised on this basis, and at the expense of which actors or groups this occurred. As editor-in-chief, Schenk is working with a team of international historians to compile a four-volume sourcebook (Routledge) on security in 19th-century Europe (SecEUR19). In a new project, Schenk is investigating the emergence, contestation and revival of megalomanic plans to create an inland sea in the Sahara since the nineteenth century, and the role played by European diplomats, scientists and experts in this endeavour, with the aim of boosting agriculture, security and trade. In 2026, these plans are being revived, this time in the context of climate change and as a potential solution to global sea-level rise.

Previously, Joep Schenk worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the ERC project 'Securing Europe, fighting its enemies 1815-1914' led by Prof. Beatrice de Graaf, and published his research on the question of how the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, being the first international organization in modern history, contributed to the emergence of a European security culture in the nineteenth century, in: The Rhine and European Security in the long 19th Century. Making lifelines from frontlines.

During his PhD he unpacked the role of entrepreneurs in the transformation of the relation between the port of Rotterdam and its (German) hinterland (1870-1914) Port barons and Ruhr tycoons. The origins of an interdependent relationship between Rotterdam and the Ruhr area 1870-1914. 

Joep Schenk's main interests are:

- History of security & water- and environmental security

- Global governance and International Organizations in the 19th and 20th century

- Political-Economic history of Globalization in the 19th and 20th century

- Transnational history