Alex W. Palmer

Alex W. Palmer is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. His work has appeared in GQ, Smithsonian Magazine, the New Republic, and on the websites of the New Yorker and National Geographic. Palmer graduated from Harvard, where he majored in social studies with a focus on conflict and ethics. As a Marshall Scholar, he earned an MA in conflict, security, and development at King’s College London and an MPhil in Middle Eastern history at Cambridge. He was a member of the inaugural class of Yenching Scholars at Peking University, where he earned a degree in China Studies and wrote extensively on modern China. As a National Geographic Explorer, he traveled the length of the Silk Road from Xi'an in western China through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. He is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a New America Future Security Fellow.