Professional Affiliation

Lecturer in History, Department of History, School of Humanities, Zhejiang University, China

Expert Bio

Ylber Marku is Lecturer in History at Zhejiang University, China. He is a Cold War historian with research interests in Albania’s communist past, Tirana’s transnational networks during the communist period, the Global Cold War, Sino-Albanian Relations, East European History, and the Global South in the Sixties. Dr. Marku obtained his Ph.D. in History at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, in November 2017. Before his doctoral studies, he studied Political Science and Politics of the European Union at the University of Padua, Italy, and has lived in different European countries such as Spain, the Netherlands, and Greece. Dr. Marku has published research articles in leading journals in his field such as, among others, Cold War History, Journal of Cold War Studies, and The International History Review. He is currently working on several research articles and the completion of his first monograph.

Expertise

• Cold War
• History
• Sino-Albanian relations during the Cold War

Wilson Center Project

A Revolutionary Joint (Ad) Venture: Albania, China, and the Cold War

Project Summary

During his stay at the Wilson Center, Ylber Marku will work on the relations between China and Albania during the Cold War, and Albania's communist past. Based on primary sources from Albania, but also limitedly China, Italy, and other countries, his research investigates the implications of the Sino-Albanian alliance for the global Cold War, and the impact of such an alliance on Albania's domestic policies. His research looks at the entanglements of this alliance with major movements during the 1960s and the 1970s such as the Decolonization, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the emergence of the South of the World. Moreover, Dr. Marku also explores the economic implications of the Chinese assistance to Albania with the implementation of tens of industrial projects with dramatic consequences for the Albanian society, environment, and economic landscape. Further research objectives include Albania’s educational networks and expertise circulation with China, East, and Western Europe during the Cold War, and the relations of Albania’s communist regime with revolutionary movements in Latin America, Western Europe, and Africa during most of the 1960s and the 1970s.

Major Publications

• Ylber Marku, “Shifting Alliances: Albania in the Early Cold War”, Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3, (Fall 2022): 80-115. Research Article. https://doi.org/10.1162/jcws_a_01074
• Ylber Marku, "Communist Relations in Crisis: The End of the Soviet-Albanian Relations, and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1960-61”, The International History Review, Vol. 42, no. 4, (2020): 813-832. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07075332.2019.1620825?journalCode=rinh20
• Ylber Marku, “China and Albania: The Cultural Revolution and Cold War Relations”, Cold War History, Vol. 17, no. 4, (2017): 367–383. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682745.2017.1307179