Christian Costamagna
Stay at EEGA: March – September 2024
Research Project: Advancing Regional Studies: Contemporary Perspectives from Southeastern Europe
Christian Costamagna obtained his PhD in Historical Sciences from the University of Eastern Piedmont in 2013 with a doctoral dissertation focused on political reforms in Serbia and Yugoslavia during the latter half of the 1980s, specifically the ascent to power of Milošević. He also holds a MA in International Relations and Human Rights from the University of Turin.
In 2011, he interned at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade, and in 2012, he spent a visiting semester at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. Additionally, he has participated in multiple international conferences, seminars, and summer schools, and has lectured at universities.
From 2013 to 2016, Christian wrote for several journals and media such as East Journal, Geopolitical Review, Mente Politica, EastWest, Geopolitica – Rivista dell’Istituto di Alti Studi in Geopolitica e Scienze Ausiliarie, European Western Balkans, and the LSE blog on Southeastern Europe. Furthermore, he served as an Adjunct Professor of Contemporary History and History of Eastern Europe at the University of Eastern Piedmont in 2014-2015.
Christian’s research interests center around the causes of the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Kosovo War, and the politics of Serbia in the 1990s, in addition to his ongoing observation of current political issues in the Western Balkans.
He has been awarded the Center for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe (CAS SEE), University of Rijeka postdoc fellowship, the Visegrad Fund Scholarship at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives in Budapest and the Leibniz ScienceCampus „Eastern Europe – Global Area“ (EEGA) fellowship at the University of Leipzig in 2023 (see previous Research Project here).
The primary objective of the stay is aimed at supporting EEGA in the realization of the RSA Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Conference 2024 in Dubrovnik. The secondary objective is to present a paper based on his research at the conference. The paper will be focused on his historical research regarding the causes of NATO intervention against Yugoslavia in 1999, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. The concept is to produce a research paper titled The Kosovo War: Understanding the US Goals that highlights the attitude of some NATO member countries towards the Kosovo Liberation Army, and whether this dimension is attributable to a potential regime change in Serbia.
Christian Costamagna took part in a discussion round with the topic „Politics of Memory: Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the NATO intervention against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Kosovo, Serbia, and ‘the West’“ in May, 2024. The discussion, organised by Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft e.V., has been recorded and is available on Youtube.