Between 1983 and 1984 he attended Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the Cambodian conflict.
After two years with the AP in New York, in 1988, he was sent to China as a foreign correspondent, thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin and his Asian studies background.
[2]: 237 He then worked in Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Iran.
Hired by the Washington Post in 1992, for more than 15 years Pomfret covered the armed conflicts in these countries and the politics of the post-Cold War era.
[4] Pomfret's third book, From Warsaw with Love: Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging an Unlikely Alliance, was published in October 2021 to critical acclaim.