[1] Salzman graduated from Antioch College in Ohio, United States in 1962, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1972 with a thesis on "Adaptation and change among the Yarahmadzai Baluch".
He conducted field research among pastoral peoples, first the Shah Nawazi nomadic tribe in Baluchistan (Iran), then with the Bharawadin Reika pastoralists in Gujarat and Rajasthani in India, and finally the Sardinians in Italy.
[2] He is retired from McGill University, and is a senior fellow of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Canadian thinktank associated with free-market and conservative political thought.
[5] According to the Assyrian International News Agency, he demonstrates "how the dual pattern of tribal self-rule and tyrannical centralism continues to define life in the Middle East, and [uses] it to explain the region's most characteristic features, such as autocracy, political mercilessness, and economic stagnancy.
"[6] Salzman has adopted a conservative stance in policy debates in North America, saying he holds "classical liberal values".