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Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy: China's Cold War and the People of the Tibetan Borderlands

In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa leaving the People’s Republic of China with a crisis on its Tibetan frontier. Drawing upon never before seen Chinese sources, Sulmaan Khan tells, for the first time, the story of how non-state actors moving across the Tibetan borderlands exposed state weakness and caused the PRC to move from empire-lite to a harder, heavier imperial formation. That change transformed Chinese policy towards the third world and the Cold War.

Date & Time

Monday
Apr. 27, 2015
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa, leaving the People’s Republic of China with a crisis on its Tibetan frontier. Drawing upon never before seen Chinese sources, Sulmaan Khan tells, for the first time, the story of how non-state actors moving across the Tibetan borderlands exposed state weakness and caused the PRC to move from empire-lite to a harder, heavier imperial formation. That change transformed Chinese policy towards the third world and the Cold War.

Sulmaan Khan is assistant professor of international history and Chinese foreign relations at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. A Yale Ph.D., he has published articles in Cold War History and Diplomatic History. He has also written for The Economist, Yale Environment 360, and The American Interest, on topics ranging from Burmese Muslims to dolphins in the Bosphorus. Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy: China’s Cold War and the People of the Tibetan Borderlands is his first book.

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Speaker

Sulmaan Khan

Sulmaan Khan

Assistant Professor, Tufts University
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Hosted By

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

Middle East Program

The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform US foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.  Read more

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