Dennis J. Blasko, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired), served 23 years as a Military Intelligence Officer and Foreign Area Officer specializing in China. Mr. Blasko was an army attaché in Beijing from 1992-1995 and in Hong Kong from 1995-1996. He also served in infantry units in Germany, Italy, and Korea and in Washington at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Headquarters Department of the Army (Office of Special Operations), and the National Defense University War Gaming and Simulation Center. Mr. Blasko is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School. He has written numerous articles and chapters on the Chinese military and defense industries and is the author of the book, The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century, second edition (Routledge, 2012).

This event is part of the 2013-2014 Harriman Institute Core Project, “Empire and Information,” which is being directed by Professor Austin Long and two postdoctoral fellows, Dr. Olga Bertelsen of Nottingham University and Dr. Ksenia Tatarchenko of Princeton University.  The project brings together an interdisciplinary set of scholars to discuss the processes, institutions, and mechanisms through which empires collect information and develop an understanding of their subject territories and populations.