S. FREDERICK STARR is Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Center whose components are affiliated, respectively, with the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington D.C. and the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm. The Founding Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Starr is a Distinguished Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. His research focuses on issues of social and economic development in Central Asia, particularly the salience of continental transport and trade. Starr was educated at Yale, Cambridge and Princeton. He was founding director of the Kennan Institute and is a former President of Oberlin College and the Aspen Institute. He contributed to the establishment of the University of Central Asia, of the Nazarbayev University, and of the ADA University in Baku. He is the author or editor of some twenty- two books and 180 articles, and the recipient of five honorary degrees.

SVANTE E. CORNELL is Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center. Cornell was educated at the Middle East Technical University and Uppsala University. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Security and Development in Stockholm, Sweden, and a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. He previously taught political science and Eurasian affairs at the University of Uppsala and at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS. He focuses on national security, regional politics, and conflict management issues in the Caucasus, as well as in Turkey, Southwest and Central Asia. He is the author or editor of eight books and some 100 articles.