Professional Affiliation

Assistant Professor, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Department of History

Expert Bio

Sara Bush Castro is an assistant professor of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, where she began teaching global and East Asian History in 2019. From 2016 to 2019, Dr. Castro served as a teaching assistant professor in the Curriculum on Peace, War, and Defense at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill specializing in global security and intelligence history. Dr. Castro previously served as an intelligence analyst for the federal government. Dr. Castro earned a doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Dr. Castro’s current research focuses on the history of U.S.-China relations through the lens of intelligence collection and analysis. The manuscript of her forthcoming book focuses on interactions between U.S. intelligence officials and the later top Communist leaders of China during and right after World War II and how these interactions translated into both U.S. policy toward China and norms for intelligence operations.

Wilson Center Project

Lop Nur and the U.S. Intelligence Gaze: Evaluating the American Intelligence Process During China’s Nuclearization

Project Summary

This study seeks to analyze from a humanistic perspective how U.S. intelligence officials addressed China’s nuclearization in the 1950s and 1960 by scrutinizing the individuals involved in the process, the institutional cultures of the organizations that developed to focus on this national security challenge, and on the political issues and other biases that may have influenced the intelligence outcomes. The findings of this inquiry have the potential to offer depth to our understanding of the history of U.S.-China relations as well as suggesting best and worst practices for the study of states currently attempting nuclearization.