Dr. Christian Methfessel

December 2025 – March 2026
Fellow at the PRIF Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

April 2022 – November 2025
Research associate (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History / Berlin Center for Cold War Studies, member of the research group “Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions”, subproject “The Yugoslav Wars and European Struggles over the Meaning of International Norms in the Early 1990s”

October 2018 – September 2021
Research associate (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at Erfurt University, research project “Annexations and Secessions during the Cold War”

March 2018
Guest teacher at Mekelle University / Ethiopia

October – December 2013 and October – December 2014
Research associate (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at Erfurt University, history department, chair of global history, and scientific coordinator at the Gotha Research Centre

October 2013 – September 2018
Research associate (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at Erfurt University, history department, chair of global history

August 2013
Ph.D., Erfurt University

September 2008
Magister Artium (Master), Humboldt University of Berlin

Annexations and Secessions during the Cold War

International borders were surprisingly stable during the Cold War. Even where, in the wake of decolonization, territorial conflicts did emerge, only few attempted annexations and secessions succeeded, and of those hardly any were recognized by the international community. Broadly speaking, the territorial integrity norm, enshrined in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, proved to be remarkably strong. This project seeks to analyze the reasons for that stability by examining selected territorial conflicts in Africa and South Asia as well as the responses to them within the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity. In doing so, it also aims to contribute to the discussion on how the interplay between the Cold War, decolonization, and the rise of new international organizations shaped the global order in the second half of the twentieth century.

Contested Violence: The Imperial Expansion in the English and German Press before the First World War

In the decades prior to the First World War, as the imperialist powers sought to increase their influence around the world, both Great Britain and Germany frequently employed military force to uphold colonial rule or to expand the territory or influence of their empires. In the colonizing states, newspapers often covered these military actions at length and the imperialist ambitions of the governments in London and Berlin could cause controversies that at times were at the centre of the political debates in both countries. This project explored how the press covered the numerous colonial wars and imperialist interventions at this time and analyses how military expansion into the non-European regions of the world influenced domestic politics in Great Britain and Germany. The PhD thesis was submitted and defended at Erfurt University in 2013 and published in the series “Peripherien. Neue Beiträge zur Europäischen Geschichte” (Böhlau Verlag).

• International History
• Applied History
• Global History
• Transimperial History
• Media History

Monography

Kontroverse Gewalt. Die imperiale Expansion in der englischen und deutschen Presse vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg (Peripherien. Beiträge zur Europäischen Geschichte; 3), Vienna: Böhlau 2019.

Journal Articles

Rooting for a Serbian-Dominated Yugoslavia? The United Kingdom and the Recognition of Slovenia and Croatia, in: Comparative Southeast European Studies 73/2 (2025), 129-153. open access 

With Michaela Zöhrer and Daniel Stahl, Claims to Universal Norms and the Forging of Transnational Networks: Struggles over the Meaning of Gender-based and Sexual Violence in Conflicts, in: Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung/ZeFKo Studies in Peace and Conflict 13/2 (2025), 417-426. open access 

Appeals for European Solidarity as Calls for Colonial Violence: British and German Public Debates around 1900, in: European Review of History / Revue Europeenne d’Histoire 24/6 (2017), 918-931.

With Jürgen Dinkel and Florian Greiner: “Murder of a European”. Der “bedrohte Europäer” als Leitmotiv im Kolonialdiskurs vom Zeitalter des Hochimperialismus bis zur Epoche der Dekolonisation, in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 62/3 (2014), 219-238.

Spreading the European Model by Military Means? The Legitimization of Colonial Wars and Imperialist Interventions in Great Britain and Germany around 1900, in: Comparativ 22/6 (2012), 42-60. open access 

Book Chapters

Territorial Conflicts on the World Stage: International Organizations, the “Third World,” and the Global Cold War, in: Sandrine Kott/Elisabeth Roehrlich/Eva-Maria Muschik (eds.), International Organizations and the Cold War: Competition, Cooperation and Convergence (Histories of Internationalism), London: Bloomsbury, 2025, 51-66. open access 

Telegramme, Läufer, Brieftauben: Kommunikation in Zeiten imperialer Kriege, in: René Smolarski (ed.), Verbindung halten. (Post)kommunikation unter schwierigen Verhältnissen (Post – Wert – Zeichen; 2), Göttingen: V & R unipress, 2021, 41-62. open access 

Wohlüberlegter Plan oder gefährliches Abenteuer? Zur Legitimation der deutschen Annexion Kiautschous 1897/98, in: Jan-Hendryk de Boer (ed.), Praxisformen. Zur kulturellen Logik von Zukunftshandeln (Kontingenzgeschichten; 6), Frankfurt a.M..: Campus, 2019, 203-213.

Bilder des Westens in der englischen Öffentlichkeit um 1900, in: Riccardo Bavaj/Martina Steber (eds.): Zivilisatorische Verortungen. Der “Westen” an der Jahrhundertwende (1880-1930) (Zeitgeschichte im Gespräch; 26), Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2018, 26-43. open access 

With Iris Schröder, Antikommunismus und Internationalismus, in: Norbert Frei/Dominik Rigoll (eds.), Der Antikommunismus in seiner Epoche. Weltanschauung und Politik in Deutschland, Europa und den USA, Göttingen: Wallstein, 2017, 139-155.

Europa als Zivilisationsmacht. Kolonialkriege und imperialistische Interventionen in der deutschen und britischen Öffentlichkeit um 1900, in: Frank Bösch/Ariane Brill/Florian Greiner (eds.), Europabilder im 20. Jahrhundert. Entstehung an der Peripherie, Göttingen: Wallstein, 2012, 54-78.

Internet Articles

Maintaining the Rules-Based International Order: How Europe can Stand up to the Superpowers as an Alliance of Small States, in: PRIF Blog, 1 April 2025. open access 

Kommunismus vs. Demokratie? Zum Einfluss des Kalten Kriegs auf die Wahrnehmungen des Zerfalls Jugoslawiens in der deutschen Politik, 3 February 2025. open access 

Afro-Asian States, the Congo Crisis, and the United Nations: Solidly United in an Anti-imperial Agenda?, in: Transimperial History Blog, 19 August 2021. open access 

With Florian Wagner, Colonialism: Transimperial Cooperation and the European Idea (1880-1914), in: International Encyclopaedia of Ideas of Europe, 24 August 2020. open access 

Rassistische Prestigepolitik mit Kanonenbooten: Die Militäraktion gegen Haiti 1897 und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, in: Portal Militärgeschichte, 10 June 2019. open access 

“Oxident gegen Orient”. Europabilder in der Berliner Morgenpost während des Boxerkriegs, in: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte (2009). open access 

Reviews and Conference Reports

Review of “Martin Grosch, Sezessionen. Das erbitterte Ringen um Unabhängigkeit, München: Olzog Verlag, 2024”, in: sehepunkte 25/10 (2025), 15.10.2025. open access 

Review of “Hal Brands, The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022”, in: sehepunkte 24/5 (2024) 15.05.2024. open access 

Review of “Norbert Mappes-Niediek, Krieg in Europa. Der Zerfall Jugoslawiens und der überforderte Kontinent, Berlin: Rowohlt, 2022”, in: sehepunkte 23/10 (2023), 15.10.2023. open access 

Review of “Charles G. Thomas/Toyin Falola, Secession and Separatist Conflicts in Postcolonial Africa, Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2020”, in: H-Soz-Kult, 1.3.2022. open access 

Review of “Alexander Benatar, Kalter Krieg auf dem indischen Subkontinent. Die deutsch-deutsche Diplomatie im Bangladeschkrieg 1971, Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2020”, in: H-Soz-Kult, 12.2.2021. open access 

Review of “Philmon Ghirmai, Globale Neuordnung durch antikoloniale Konferenzen. Ghana und Ägypten als Zentren der afrikanischen Dekolonisation, Bielefeld: Transcript, 2019”, in: H-Soz-Kult, 8.12.2020. open access 

Conference report “The Boxer War and its Media: Making a Transnational Historical Event, 1900 to the Present”, in: AHF-Information 196 (2009). open access