MONTGOMERY – Award-winning journalist and author John Pomfret will address China-U.S. relations during the Alabama World Affairs Council presentation on March 14 at Troy University Montgomery.
The event, which is free for World Affairs Council members and $20 for non-members, will be held in the Gold Room in Whitley Hall at Troy University Montgomery, beginning with a 5:30 p.m. reception and a presentation to follow.
Acclaimed as one of the most brilliant and insightful China experts, Pomfret has been a correspondent for the “Washington Post” for two decades, currently serving as the editor of the newspaper’s weekend opinion section, “Outlook.”
Pomfret recently published “The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to Present,” and also is the author of “Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Troy of the New China,” which was published in 2006.
Pomfret attended Stanford University, receiving a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in East Asian Studies. In 1980, he was one of the first American students to go to China and study at Nanjing University. Between 1983 and 1984, he attended Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the Cambodian conflict.
After beginning his career at a newspaper in Riverside County, Calif., Pomfret was hired by the Associated Press to work in New York. In 1988, he was sent to China as a foreign correspondent.
Pomfret also has worked in several other countries, including Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. For more than 15 years, he covered the armed conflicts in these countries, as well as politics of the post-Cold War era.
During his career, Pomfret has received several awards, including the Osborne Elliot Prize for the best coverage of Asia by the Asia Society (2003) and the Sorenstein Prize for coverage of Asia (2007). In 2004, he won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship, writing about education in China.
Pomfret speaks, reads and writes Mandarin, and also speaks French, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian. He currently resides near Washington, D.C., with his wife and family.
The Alabama World Affairs Council sponsors lectures and programs on current and recent events of national and international interest throughout the year with the aim to increase individuals’ knowledge of world affairs and how they impact the United States. The Council also serves as a platform to showcase some of the world-class faculty at Maxwell Air Force Base’s Air University. The Council has partnered with Troy University, bringing all Council events to the University’s Montgomery Campus.
To register for the event, visit the council’s website or contact Dahdee Bullen at dahdeekb@yahoo.com (334-567-0953).
