Joost Herman is currently employed as professor International Studies by the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, FHSS, School of International Studies

Educational background

Joost Herman studied both history and international law at the University of Leyden in The Netherlands. He majored in Soviet military doctrine and in public international law, with minors in Slavic languages (Russian) and Soviet constitutional law.

He earned his doctorate in 1994 at the faculty of law, Utrecht University, writing on the effectiveness of international legal protection of national minorities in Central and Eastern Europe during the League of Nations era.

Professional positions

After being awarded his doctorate, Herman moved on to the University of Groningen, department of international relations and international organisation, ultimately being appointed there full professor in Globalisation Studies and International Humanitarian Action in 2012. He served as head of the department International Relations, director of the Globalisation Studies Groningen Institute (including the Centre for East Asia Studies Groningen) and Director of the Humanitarian Action Programme, all (co-)created by him.

In all the above capacities Herman was intimately involved in the internationalisation strategy of the University of Groningen, building partnerships and research consortia in the America’s, Africa, the Middle East and Asia at large. Concerning the latter area, Herman frequently operated in China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Herman is founder-member of the International Humanitarian Studies Association, a global association created in Groningen in 2009. Since that year the IHSA organises bi-annually the World Conference on Humanitarian Studies (www.ihsa.info).

Together with prof.dr. Andrej Zwitter (University of Groningen) and Dr. Hassan Bashir (Texas A&M University Qatar) Herman became Series Editor of the Routledge Studies in Humanitarian Action (launch 2017).

Research interests:

international humanitarian action, international humanitarian law, (Dutch) international development assistance, disaster response, disaster preparedness, resilience building globalisation studies and the socialisation of norms at societal level.