Max Boot is a senior columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. A leading voice on U.S. foreign policy, national security, and military history, he has advised senior policymakers and served as a defense analyst for multiple administrations. Boot is also the author of several acclaimed books, including The Road Not Taken, Invisible Armies, and War Made New, and is a frequent commentator on global affairs and American strategy.

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Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) in Washington, D.C., and a leading expert on security issues in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia. He has consulted for the CIA and U.S. Defense and State Departments, and advised congressional offices on foreign policy and national security. Berman is also an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics and associated faculty at Missouri State University’s Department of Defense and Strategic Studies. He is the author and editor of numerous books on Iran, Russia, warfare, and global security — including a forthcoming work titled The New Imperialists.

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Edward Fishman is a leading scholar of economic statecraft and a former U.S. diplomat who helped design sanctions policies at the State Department and Treasury. He is currently a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and also teaches at its Center on Global Energy Policy. His book Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare (2025) offers a gripping, behind-the-scenes account of how the U.S. turned global finance, technology, and energy infrastructure into tools of geopolitical influence.

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Barry R. Posen is the Ford International Professor of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director Emeritus of its MIT Security Studies Program. A leading scholar in grand strategy and defense policy, his influential works include Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy and The Sources of Military Doctrine. Posen continues to shape debates on global power shifts, U.S. force posture, and military intervention through his teaching, research, and commentary.

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Scott Kennedy is Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). A leading authority on Chinese economic policy and U.S.–China commercial relations, he has traveled to China for nearly four decades and focuses on China’s industrial policy, tech innovation, and global economic governance. His publications include The Business of Lobbying in China, The Fat Tech Dragon, and numerous policy reports on U.S.–China tensions.

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Don Bentley is a bestselling American thriller author and former FBI Special Agent, SWAT team member, and U.S. Army Apache helicopter pilot. He currently continues the legacy of Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series, with his newest novel Denied Access, which takes fans back to Rapp’s early days as he battles threats to the CIA and a lover in peril. Bentley’s diverse writing portfolio also includes the Matt Drake series and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Jr. novels.

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Jake Tapper is a prominent CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent, and the author of Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War. His book uncovers the high-stakes global hunt to prosecute an al Qaeda operative who surrendered during the Arab Spring and sheds light on the challenges of delivering justice in the War on Terror. Tapper is also known for his political journalism, previously penning works like The Outpost and his bestselling novels.

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Jack Carr is a former U.S. Navy SEAL turned bestselling author known for his high-octane military thrillers. He burst onto the scene with The Terminal List, which was adapted into a Prime Video series, and has since written several more in the Reece series including Red Sky Mourning and Cry Havoc. In addition to fiction, he’s the author of Targeted: Beirut, a nonfiction work exploring the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings. Carr is also the host of the Danger Close podcast and draws heavily on his two decades of special operations experience in his writing.

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