Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Chief commodities economist at Citigroup and adjunct associate professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Former Washington bureau chief at the Financial Times. Recently co-directed the Independent Task Force on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy and was the project director for the Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy. Latest book, The Closing of the American Border, examines U.S. visa and border policies in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Infantry officer and former commander of the Basic School in Quantico, VA, and director of strategic effects ISAF, HQ, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Commanded the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines in eastern Afghanistan and western Iraq and was executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines in OIF I, the March to Baghdad. Operational experience in Operation Just Cause, Panama; Operation Desert Storm, Kuwait; and Operation Assured Response, Liberia.

Scholar of religions and expert on the Middle East. Author of the international bestseller No god but God.

Journalism professor at New York University. Former Middle East bureau chief at Newsday. Currently working on a project about sectarian politics in the Middle East.

Partner at Arnold & Porter, LLP. Former legal adviser for the U.S. Department of State and National Security Council. Currently directing a roundtable series on international and national security law.

Author of American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National Security and professor at Columbia University. Commissioner to the National Commission on Terrorism and former staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Current work examines the U.S. national security agenda.

Author of In Defense of Globalization, special adviser to the UN and the World Trade Organization, and professor of law and economics at Columbia University. Latest book, Termites in the Trading System, discusses the deleterious effects of preferential trade agreements.

Award-winning author of Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. Former associate professor and Elihu Root chair of military studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. Current work examines U.S. defense policy and strategy.

Former deputy assistant to the president, deputy national security adviser for strategic planning, and presidential envoy to Iraq under George W. Bush. U.S. Ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003. Current work focuses on American foreign policy writ large as well as China, Russia, the Middle East, South Asia, and geoeconomics. Editor of Iran: The Nuclear Challenge.

Expert on legal and regulatory issues in global health, technological innovation and delivery, and international trade. Adjunct professor of law, former U.S. trade negotiator. Currently directing a roundtable series on Global Health, Economics, and Development.

Award-winning author, historian, and military strategist. Author of The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power and War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today. Finishing Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, which will be released by W.W. Norton & Co. in January 2013.

Senior executive serving in the U.S. intelligence community; previous work included regional analysis related to U.S. national security issues. Currently working on China and Southeast Asia issues.

Former director for Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. Leading architect of U.S. policy toward Indonesia during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Currently directing a roundtable series that focuses on Asia.

Career Foreign Service officer and former ambassador to Nigeria. Political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria during South Africa's first non-racial elections. His book Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink was published by Rowman & Littlefield in November 2010. The second edition is coming soon. He writes the blog "Africa in Transition" and edits the Nigeria Security Tracker.

Former private sector oil analyst and instructor in finance and economics at Oxford University. Current research focuses on energy security and policy, global commodities markets, and natural resource economics.

Assistant professor of international relations at University of Southern California and adjunct member of research staff at Institute for Defense Analyses. Currently working on game-theoretic analyses of nuclear proliferation and the non-proliferation regime.

Director of Google Ideas, Google Inc. Former member of the policy planning staff under both Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Internationally renowned expert on the Chinese legal system and professor at NYU School of Law. Current work examines the rule of law in Asian countries.