Christian Ostermann is director of the History and Public Policy Program (HAPP) at the Woodrow Wilson Center. In that capacity he also oversees the Cold War International History Program (CWIHP), North Korea International Documentation Project, and Nuclear Proliferation International History Project. Ostermann studied at the universities of Bonn, Hamburg, and Cologne, where he completed his PhD in history, and was a research fellow at the Commission for the History of Parliament and Political Parties in Bonn. Prior to joining the Wilson Center, in 1997, Ostermann worked at The George Washington University’s National Security Archive, where he remains a senior research fellow. Since 2006, he has chaired the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award, and he currently serves as a co-editor of Cold War History and editor of the HAPP’s flagship publications, the CWIHP Bulletin and the Digital Archive.

His most recent publications include The Cold War: Historiography, Memory and Representation (2017), ed. with Konrad Jarausch and Andreas Etges; “Trust, but Verify.” The Politics of Uncertainty & the Transformation of the Cold War Order, 1969-1991 (2016), ed. with Martin Klimke and Reinhild Kreis; “The Global Cold War: Using the Resources of the Cold War International History Project,” in: Understanding and Teaching the Cold War (2016), ed. by Matt Masur; “Extended Deterrence in Europe and East Asia during the Cold War–A Reappraisal,” Special Issue of the Journal of Strategic Studies 39:4 (2016), ed. with Leopoldo Nuti; Sino-European Relations during the Cold War and the Rise of the Multipolar World: A Critical Oral History (2015), ed. with Enrico Fardella and Charles Kraus; The Rise and Fall of Détente on the Korean Peninsula, 1970-1974 (2011), ed. with James Person; Uprising in East Germany 1953: The Cold War, the German Question, and the First Major Upheaval Behind the Iron Curtain (2001).