Expert Bio

Nolan Peterson is a 2026-2027 Wilson Center Research Fellow. 

Peterson is an award-winning war correspondent, irregular warfare researcher, and author who specializes in national resistance movements in Ukraine and Tibet. As a journalist, Peterson has covered conflicts around the world. He lived in Ukraine from 2014 through 2024, often reporting from the front lines. He also embedded with US armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and with the Kurdish Peshmerga during the 2016 battle for Mosul in Iraq. Peterson regularly travels to India and Nepal for field research on the Tibetan resistance, including several expeditions to explore refugee escape routes across the Himalayas.

 

Beyond journalism, Peterson has continued his research as a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Center for European Policy Analysis, and as a subject matter expert and field researcher for the Pentagon’s Irregular Warfare Center.

 

Peterson graduated from the US Air Force Academy and served as a special operations pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan. He holds a master’s degree in French from Middlebury College following two years of study at the Sorbonne in Paris, France as a Gerhart fellow. He also has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where he was a McCormick Foundation fellow. He is the author of Why Soldiers Miss War and has written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Small Wars Journal, CNN, Newsweek, and other outlets.

Wilson Center Project

Tibetan Resistance at a Crossroads: Historical Legacies, Competing Visions, and the Strategic Issues at Stake

Project Summary

This project will examine the evolution of Tibetan resistance to Chinese occupation since the 1950s and analyze the landscape of competing visions about the movement’s future. Under this analytical framework, the research will then evaluate how Tibetan resistance, from the Cold War to today, has shaped geopolitical flashpoints along China’s Himalayan frontier. Drawing on archival research, expeditionary fieldwork, and interviews with Tibetan leaders, scholars, and regional security experts, the findings will provide U.S. policymakers and stakeholders with evidence-based insights into the enduring, strategic significance of Tibet for Himalayan security challenges, as well as for U.S. China policy.