Lukas Schemper

As an IR professor, it's depressing that this is outperforming all others as the best theory of US foreign policy

I am delighted that the special issue ‘Socialist Humanitarianism in the Twentieth Century’ has now been published in the Journal of Contemporary History. This special issue was a joy to edit and brings together a dream team of contributors. I'll post the contributions in this thread...

Picture of DOGE guy Nate Cavanaugh

Screenshot of my DOGE letter “Dr. Joseph Rezek Dear NEH Grantee, This letter provides notice that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is terminating your federal grant (Grant Application No. FEL29509824) effective April 3, 2025, in accordance with the termination clause in your Grant Agreement. Your grant no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant Agreement and is subject to termination due to several reasonable causes, as outlined in 2CFR§200.340. For instance, NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President's agenda. The President's February 19, 2025 executive order mandates that the NEH eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions. See Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, E.O. 14217 (Feb. 19, 2025). Your grant's immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities. Any objections or appeals to this termination will be managed in strict accordance with the President's Executive Orders,

Last year, this guy (left) from DOGE used ChatGPT to find NEH grants that were too “DEI” for Trump, and canceled them, including mine, as shown by the letter I received last April (right). Huge new NYT article on the back story link below

Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base

Even if it is a "mistake," it can still be a war crime. A person who acts recklessly in causing disproportionate civilian deaths can be found to have acted “wilfully” and thus responsible for a war crime.

Read "'Mistakes' in War": papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/w...

U.S. May Have Committed War Crime In Sinking Of Iranian Ship The Geneva Conventions say nations have a duty to “take all possible measures” to help rescue victims of shipwrecks. A U.S. submarine left that to Sri Lanka.

“The 312-foot Dena and its 130-member crew, many of them musicians in the Iranian navy band, had just finished participating in an Indian government naval exercise and cultural exchange that the U.S. Navy had also participated in and were on the way home on Wednesday.”

The Most Chilling Detail in the U.S. Attack on an Iranian Naval Ship The Iranian warship was taking part in an international exercise with many other countries—including the United States.

This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...

Gaza: Trapped by the International Order The war in Gaza has given rise to unprecedented protests in the West and divided the international community between nations supporting and condemning Israel. It has also led to countries like South A...

humanityjournal.org/blog/gaza-tr...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Check out the February 2026 Issue of the International Journal of Maritime History

journals.sagepub.com/toc/IJH/curr...

The International Journal of Maritime History welcomes all readers to the first issue of 2026.

Rechtsprofessor Kai Ambos über Irankrieg: „Das Völkerrecht ist kein Wunschkonzert von Professoren“ Der Angriff der USA und Israel ist eindeutig völkerrechtswidrig, sagt Kai Ambos. Das kann auch Merz in Schwierigkeiten bringen.

"Deutschland darf, wie jeder anderer Staat auch, keinerlei Unterstützung für völkerrechtswidrige Handlungen leisten. Sollte Ramstein also in den aktuellen Krieg eingebunden sein, müsste Deutschland dagegen zumindest protestieren."

taz.de/Rechtsprofes...

Congratulations, you've been given more money than any country in world history to build a military that can launch missiles at any target on earth from the comfort of the Fox and Friends couch and you're "winning" against a failing third-rate theocratic shitocracy devastated by decades of sanctions

War Crimes McGee here doesn’t even know enough to understand he’s offering up a catalogue of failure

Cover of book COVID Studies: A Reader. Blue with image of knitted globes in shape of a COVID molecule

Coming in July:
COVID Studies: A Reader.
Includes an article I co-authored with Hyeonbin Park on animals & care in a pandemic.
www.pennpress.org/978151282949...

Surely, they tried to save all survivors from the water, as required by IHL

Sketching configurations of imperial sovereignty through nineteenth-century maritime safety - Lukas Schemper, 2026 This article explores the nineteenth-century view that the organization of maritime safety – the ability to control or circumvent the natural forces of waterway...

Check out 'Sketching configurations of imperial sovereignty through nineteenth-century maritime safety' by Lukas Schemper

doi.org/10.1177/0843...

It investigates this hierarchical understanding by discussing examples of maritime safety in the context of colonialism and informal imperialism

After years of calls, events, and track changes, Brian Drohan and I are excited to announce the publication of our edited volume, Military Humanitarianism: Aid Operations and Armed Forces, with @cornellupress.bsky.social in July 2026!

www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Why Global Aid Must Be Reimagined "Reforming the broken global aid system feels more urgent and perhaps more attainable than ever before," writes Andrew Thompson

"Virtually every challenge humanitarians face today has a deep historical context."

📖 A new special issue of @journalmaritime.bsky.social 🌊 , which I co-edited w/ H. Trüper, explores how maritime rescue 🛟 has historically been bound up with questions of sovereignty. If you’re interested in the history of saving lives at sea, have a look at our introduction shorturl.at/nBZM2 (1/7)

Schließung des Instituts für Archäologie an der HU-Berlin Die Archäologie gehört seit fast 200 Jahren zur wissenschaftlichen Tradition der Humboldt-Universität. Ihre Schließung bedeutet den Abbruch einer gewachsenen Forschungstradition und eine dauerhafte Sc...

Please support the petition against the planned #closure of #Archaeology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Archaeology has been a part of Humboldt-Universität academic tradition for almost 200 years, so closing it would break a long-standing research tradition

weact.campact.de/petitions/sc...

And Irial Glynn reflects on how notions of sovereignty and solidarity influenced the response to boat refugees at sea between 1979 and 2001: doi.org/10.1177/0843... (7/7)

Gard Paulsen considers the  International Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea (drafted in response to the sinking of the Titanic) as a culmination of nineteenth-century maritime law: doi.org/10.1177/0843... (6/7)

Henning Trüper explores the relationship between moral and legal language as convergent and divergent types of normative order in the long history of shipwreck and lifesaving. doi.org/10.1177/0843... (5/7)

I am looking at 19th c. maritime safety projects at Cape Guardafui, Cape Spartel, and the Bosporus to sketch configurations of imperial sovereignty. shorturl.at/i8IJg (4/7)

Nebiha Guiga discusses the early history of the national French lifesaving organisation and its links with the political regime of the Second Empire. shorturl.at/am2kO (3/7)

Saving souls from the depths: The society for rescuing the drowning (Zhengnitang) in late imperial China - Ronald C. Po, 2026 What motivates a society or community to promote the rescue of individuals in hazardous waters? This article expands upon comprehensive research regarding chari...

Most articles – covering a wide chronological, geographical and thematic span - are open access.
Ron Po, for example, analyses charity and volunteerism in late Qing China using the example of a local organisation committed to rescuing individuals from drowning. shorturl.at/2Oa3I (2/7)

📖 A new special issue of @journalmaritime.bsky.social 🌊 , which I co-edited w/ H. Trüper, explores how maritime rescue 🛟 has historically been bound up with questions of sovereignty. If you’re interested in the history of saving lives at sea, have a look at our introduction shorturl.at/nBZM2 (1/7)

What America forgets about the UN The organisation faces a potential rival in Donald Trump’s fledgling ‘Board of Peace’. But as a forum for US power, it would be a hard act to follow

The organisation faces a potential rival in Donald Trump’s fledgling ‘Board of Peace’. But as a forum for US power, it would be a hard act to follow: ft.trib.al/qXuVZWL

Time frames: Crisis expertise and rapid response mechanisms Jan Eijking discusses the key points from his new RIS article.

In crisis, time is "of the essence". What does that imply for the typically slow production and mobilisation of expert knowledge?

Here's a short piece in which I sum up & discuss the argument of my recent @risjnl.bsky.social article on UN rapid response mechanisms:

Greatly enjoyed designing & teaching a master’s seminar for the University of Vienna development studies department this past term on “The Sea as a Humanitarian Space". The outcome is a student blog w/ posts & podcasts – on topics they chose themselves: humanitariansea.hypotheses.org

Akira Iriye, leading historian of Japan-U.S. relations, dies | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis Akira Iriye, a Harvard University professor emeritus and a leading scholar on the history of international relations, died on Jan. 27. He was 91.

I just learned of the passing of Akira Iriye two weeks ago. A treasured figure in international history and a great scholar of East Asia. Hard to think of many people who shaped the field as much as he did.

The Board of Governors decided, unilaterally, that no published textbook in the field of sociology could be used in compliance with the law for an Intro to Sociology class. None. Victor: There's not a single existing textbook on the market that could be used that would qualify under state law? Zachary: Correct. Victor: I'm sorry, that's kind of funny. Like, the absurdity of not a single sociology textbook getting past the censors. I mean, it makes me kind of proud of our colleagues, but...

I do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors.

Great work everyone.