Di Cosmo, Nicola

Nicola Di Cosmo received his Ph.D. from the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies (now Central Eurasian Studies) at Indiana University in 1991, and held research and teaching positions at the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, and the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) before joining the Institute for Advanced Study in 2003. His main field of research is the history of the relations between China and Inner Asia from prehistory to the modern period, with a special emphasis on the social, political and military history of early nomadic empires, and on Mongol and Manchu history. His publications include Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Powers in East Asian History (2002), Manchu-Mongol Relations on the Eve of the Qing Conquest (2003), and The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth Century China (2006).  His edited and co-edited books include as Warfare in Inner Asian History (500-1800) (2002), Military Culture in Imperial China (2009), The Cambridge History of Inner Asia (2009), and Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity (2018).  His most recent work is devoted to the use of proxy data from climatology and other palaeosciences in the study of the history of China and Inner Asia, with special reference to Eurasian empires, the Mongol empire, and the Qing dynasty.