The International Security Studies Brady-Johnson Grand Strategy Lecture Series presents an Open Lecture
Professor Sulmaan Khan, Assistant Professor of International History and Chinese Foreign Relations at The Fletcher School, Tufts University: “Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy: China’s Cold War and the People of the Tibetan Borderlands.”
Professor Sulmaan Khan tells the story of the PRC’s response to the Tibetan crisis of 1959 and brings to life an extraordinary cast of characters: Chinese diplomats appalled by sky burials, Guomindang spies working with Tibetans in Nepal, traders carrying salt across the Himalayas, and Tibetan Muslims rioting in Lhasa.
Professor Sulmaan Khan also directs the Water and Oceans program at the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP). He received a PhD in History from Yale University in December, 2012 and a Grand Strategy Alum. His book, Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy: China’s Cold War and the Tibetan Borderlands, will be published in 2015 by UNC Chapel Hill Press. He has published articles in Cold War History and Diplomatic History; his research has been supported by the Cold War International History Project at the Wilson Center. He has also written for The Economist, The American Interest, Prospect, e360, and YaleGlobal, on topics ranging from Burmese Muslims in China to dolphin migration through the Bosphorus. Prior to Fletcher, he spent nine months living in Turkey.