Hugh White is the author of The China Choice and Quarterly Essay 39, Power Shift. He is professor of strategic studies at ANU and was the principal author of Australia’s Defence White Paper 2000.

Saul Griffith is an engineer and inventor. He has been principal investigator on projects for NASA, the US National Science Foundation and US Special Operations Command. He was awarded the MacArthur ‘Genius Grant' in 2007. He is the founder of Rewiring America and Rewiring Australia and author of Electrify, The Big Switch and The Wires That Bind. His forthcoming book is Plug In!

Linda Jaivin has been studying Chinese politics, language and culture for more than forty years. She has been a foreign correspondent in China, and is co-editor of the China Story Yearbook, an associate of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University and the author of twelve books including The Shortest History of China.

Author photo by Anna Hay

Sheila Fitzpatrick is a pioneer in the field of Soviet history. She regularly contributes to the London Review of Books and is the multi-award-winning author of many books, including Everyday Stalinism, On Stalin's Team, The Russian Revolution, White Russians, Red Peril and the bestselling The Shortest History of the Soviet Union.