Neal Carter is a researcher at the Department of Political Science, Maxwell School, Syracuse University in the US. His research compares the decision-making processes of political elites in Belgium and Quebec regarding ethnopolitical conflict in both regions. He received fellowship in political psychology from the Mershon Center at Ohio State University.

Takashi Hiraoka is Mayor of Hiroshima. During World War II, as a reporter of a newspaper, he personally observed the devastating effects of nuclear weapons. Since then, he has campaigned for global nuclear disarmament. Mayor Hiraoka is very active in peace movements and reconciliation.

Bjørn Møller is a senior research fellow at the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (COPRI); project Director of the Global Non-Offensive Defense Network; editor of NOD and Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science, University of Copenhagen; and Secretary General elect of IPRA (International Peace Research Association). He is the author of: Resolving the Security Dilemma in Europe (1991), Common Security and Nonoffensive Defense (1992), and The Dictionary of Alternative Defense (1995).

Jan Øberg is Director of Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research in Sweden. As one of leading peace researchers in Europe, he has written numerous books and articles on international security, conflict resolution, peacekeeping, and  development. Dr. Øberg has led conflict mitigation missions to former Yugoslavia and  Georgia.

Ramesh Thakur is the Head of the Peace Research Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra, former Professor of International Relations and Director of Asian Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He is the author/editor of twelve books, including Peacekeeping in Vietnam: Canada, India, Poland and the International Commission (1984); International Peacekeeping in Lebanon: United Nations Authority and Multinational Force (1987); International Conflict Resolution (1988); A Crisis of Expectations: UN Peacekeeping in the 1990s (1995); and The United Nations at Fifty: Retrospect and Prospect (1996).