Dr. Bruce Hoffman is the Director of the RAND Corporation. He holds a D.Phil from Oxford University. Hoffman’s publications include the books“Holy Terror”: The Implications of Terrorism Motivated by a Religious Imperative (1993),  Inside Terrorism (1998), and The Failure of Britain’s Military Strategy in Palestine, 1939–1947 (1983).

Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Reporting. He authored the book Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, which was hailed as one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, The Progressive, Washingtonian magazine, and Playboy. Goldberg is the recipient of the 2003 National Magazine Award for Reporting for his coverage of Islamic terrorism. He is also the winner of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists prize for best international investigative journalist; the Overseas Press Club award for best human-rights reporting; and the Abraham Cahan Prize in Journalism. He is also the recipient of 2005’s Anti-Defamation League Daniel Pearl Prize. Before joining The Atlantic in 2007, Mr. Goldberg was a Middle East correspondent, and the Washington correspondent for The NewYorker.

Dr. Samuel Huntington is the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University. During the Carter administration, Huntington was the White House Coordinator of Security Planning for the National Security Council. He earned his Ph.D. in government at Harvard, and has taught in the Department of Government there for almost 50 years.

Dr. Roy Mottahedeh  received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1970 for a dissertation on Buyid administration. Professor Mottahedeh began his teaching career at Princeton University in 1970. A Guggenheim Fellowship allowed him to write his first book, Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society (1980), the manuscript of which gained him tenure. As one of the first group of MacArthur fellows in 1981, Professor Mottahedeh was initially doubtful that such an award existed and called back for confirmation. The MacArthur award allowed him to write his second book, The Mantle of the Prophet (1985), which was a study of contemporary Iran as understood through two millennia of history. This book has been widely translated and remains in print.

In 1986 Professor Mottahedeh returned to Harvard University as Professor of Islamic History in the History Department. He served as the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University from 1987 to 1990 and founded the Harvard Middle East and Islamic Review as a medium for Harvard students and teachers to publish their work. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations and has served as a series editor for several academic publishers. In 1994 he was appointed Gurney Professor of History. Together with Angeliki Laiou he co-edited The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (2001).

Jay Tolson is a senior writer at U. S. News & World Report, concentrating on culture, politics, society, and religion. In cover stories, section leads, and shorter pieces, he writes on social issues, foreign affairs, scholarly debates, all areas of culture and the arts, education, social policy, and new thinking about a wide range of historical and contemporary topics. Tolson received an A. B. in history from Princeton University in 1972 and an M. A. in literature from American University in 1977.