Sara McLaughlin Mitchell is the F. Wendell Miller Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa. She is co-director of the Issue Correlates of War Project and an associate editor of Research & Politics. She is coauthor of Domestic Law Goes Global: Legal Traditions and International Courts, Guide to the Scientific Study of International Processes, Conflict, War, and Peace: An Introduction to Scientific Research, The Triumph of Democracy and the Eclipse of the West, and What Do We Know about Civil Wars?.

John A. Vasquez is the Thomas B. Mackie Scholar in International Relations at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His books include The War Puzzle, The Power of Power Politics, The Steps to War: An Empirical Study, The Outbreak of the First World War, Contagion and War: Lessons from the First World War, and What Do We Know About War? (1st and 2nd edition). . He received the Peter Nardulli Award, the Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Illinois Student Senate Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Illinois. He has served as president of the Peace Science Society and the International Studies Association and received the Lifetime Achievement (APSA Conflict Processes Section) and Quincy Wright Distinguished Scholar (ISA Midwest) awards.