Max Boot is Olin Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is also a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and a weekly columnist for The Los Angeles Times. His last book, The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power was selected as one of the best books of 2002 by The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Christian Science Monitor. It also won the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award, given annually by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. He is now writing his next book, a history of revolutions in military affairs over the past 500 years, titled War Made New: Four Great Revolutions That Changed the Face of Battle and the Course of History. Before joining the Council in October 2002, Boot spent eight years as a writer and editor at The Wall Street Journal, and from 1992 to 1994 he was an editor and writer at The Christian Science Monitor. Boot received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.A. in history from Yale University.

Morton H. Halperin is the Director of U.S. Advocacy at the Open Society Institute. Halperin has a distinguished career in federal government, having served in the Clinton, Nixon, and Johnson administrations. Halperin also has a long record as a Washington advocate on national and international issues. He spent many years at the American Civil Liberties Union, serving as the Director of the Washington Office from 1984 to 1992. He served as the Director of the Center for National Security Studies from 1975 to 1992. Halperin has been associated with a number of think tanks and universities including Harvard, where he taught for six years (1960–66), and the Council on Foreign Relations. The recipient of numerous awards, Halperin also serves as the Senior Vice President of the Center for American Progress. He is Chairman of the Board of the Democracy Coalition Project. He is also the Chairman of the Board of the Health Privacy Project at Georgetown University. He serves on the boards of DATA and The Constitution Project, and is the chair of the Advisory Board of the Center for National Security Studies. Halperin holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Yale University. He received his B.A. from Columbia College.

Michael M. Weinstein is BP Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former economics columnist and news analyst for the New York Times. His other previous positions include Chairman, Department of Economics, Haverford College; Op-Ed Columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer; Economics Analyst and Commentator for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition; managing consultant, Institute for Journalists, New York Times Company Foundation; Director, Single-Stop Advice Center, Open Society Institute (a program to provide free financial, legal, and family-service advice to families and staff of New York City public schools); President and founder, W.A.D. Financial Counseling, Inc. (a nonprofit foundation that provides free financial counseling to low-income families).

Frank G. Wisner is Vice Chairman, External Affairs, at American International Group. A career diplomat with the personal rank of Career Ambassador (the highest grade in the senior Foreign Service), he previously served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 1994–97. Additionally, he held the positions of Ambassador to Zambia (1979–82), Egypt (1986–91), and the Philippines (1991–92). Ambassador Wisner has served in a number of positions in the U.S. government, including Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (1993–94), Undersecretary of State for International Security Affairs (1992–93), Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs (1982–86), Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs (1976), and Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State (1977). A native of New York, Ambassador Wisner was educated at Princeton University.