Adam Elkus is an analyst specializing in foreign policy and security. He is Associate Editor at Red Team Journal. He is a frequent contributor to Small Wars Journal and has published at numerous venues including The Atlantic, Defense Concepts, West Point CTC Sentinel, Infinity Journal, and other publications. He is an associate at SWJ El Centro and blogs at Rethinking Security.

Alejandro M. Sueldo is a scholar with the Project on Nuclear Issues of the Center for Strategic & International Studies and author of “Contextualizing and Engaging Russian Nuclear Policy.”

Ali Hayat has planned, designed and managed international qualitative and quantitative research projects and evaluations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan including in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, The Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel and Georgia. He recently returned from a field trip to Southern Pakistan where he conducted a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat (SWOT) analysis for an international NGO. Earlier this year he successfully completed the Human Terrain Systems (HTS) training as a Social Scientist in Leavenworth, Kansas. He has worked on diverse research projects on post-conflict governance and stabilization, civil wars and insurgencies, counter insurgency and development for government, non-government, and international clients.

Alice Sweitzer is a research assistant in Washington, D.C.

Andrew Shaver is a graduate student in Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an independent researcher for the National Defense University’s Center for Complex Operations. He served previously as a policy analyst within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and as an economic development officer in Iraq for the Secretary of Defense’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations.

The writer is a combat tested and decorated fighter pilot with over a decade of experience and 2000+ hours in multiple types.

Avinash Paliwal is a doctoral candidate in War Studies at the King’s College London, and is currently working at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi

Barry M. Stentiford, an associate professor of Military History at the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Studies, received his Ph.D. in Military History from the University of Alabama is 1998. He is on a one year leave-of-absence serving as a reserve officer at the U.S. SOCOM History & Research Office working on the official history of OEF-P.

Lieutenant Commander Benjamin “BJ” Armstrong, USN, is an active duty MH-60S helicopter pilot who is currently serving as Detachment Officer-in-Charge of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron TWENTY EIGHT Detachment TWO aboard USS BATAAN (LHD-5).  He is a frequent contributor to Proceedings and Naval History and was a panelist at the 2010 USNI History Conference “Piracy on the High Seas.”. His unit is currently deployed in support of maritime security and contingency operations in the U.S. 5^th Fleet AOR.

Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV assumed command of the NATO Training Mission–Afghanistan and Combined Security Transition Command–Afghanistan in November 2009 after serving as the Commander for the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth for 28 months, during which time he led the transformation of U.S. Army doctrine through the development of the Operations, Stability Operations, and Security Force Assistance Manuals.

Bing West served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Reagan administration. A graduate of Georgetown and Princeton Universities, he served in the Marine infantry. He was a member of the Force Recon team that initiated attacks behind North Vietnamese lines.

He wrote the counterinsurgency classic, The Village, that has been on the Commandant's Reading List for 40 years. His books have won the Marine Corps Heritage Prize, the Colby Award for Military History, the VFW Media Award and the General Goodpaster Soldier-scholar Award. He has been on hundreds of patrols and operations throughout Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Bing is a member of St. Crispin's Order of the Infantry and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Colonel (USA ret) Bob Killebrew writes and consults on national defense issues as a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. His most recent writings include The Crossover of Urban Gang Warfare and Terrorism (National Strategy Forum, Fall 2008) and Terror at the Border for Armed Forces Journal, December, 2008. With Jennifer Bernal he authored the CNAS study Crime Wars; Gangs, Cartels and U.S. National Security, published in 2010. He is currently working with Matthew Irvine on U.S. – Colombian security policy.

Lieutenant Colonel Bob Weimann's career spans 24 years as an US Marine Infantry Officer including participating in Desert Shield and Storm with the 2nd Marine Division. He retired in 1996, and lives with his family to Raleigh, NC where he works as an information technology program and project manager. He is also a contributing editor of the Defend Our Marines Web site www.defendourmarines.com and a member of the Board of Directors for the United Servicemen Action Defense Fund (USADF).

Dr. Brandt Smith is a Social Scientist with 20+ years of experience in Iraq, Taiwan, Thailand, China and Myanmar (Burma).  Most recently, Dr. Smith completed his second tour of duty as a Department of Army Civilian in Iraq where he embedded with the US Army.  His 5 ½ years in Iraq had him traveling the entire country connecting with Kurds, Sunnis and Shi’a interviewing hundreds of Iraqi nationals nationwide.  From 2006-2008 he served as director of a non-government organization (NGO) and later as a Human Terrain System, Social Scientist in eight southern Iraqi provinces.