Tomáš Klvaňa is Visiting Professor at New York University Prague and a senior international consultant. He was a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, served as the Press Spokesperson and Policy Adviser to the President of the Czech Republic, and was Special Coordinator for the Czech government’s missile defense program. Dr. Klvaňa co-founded the Aspen Institute Central Europe and served on its board. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where he received the Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals, and an M.A. from Charles University in Prague. Dr. Klvaňa is married with two daughters and lives in Prague.

Thomas E. Meurer is a retired business executive whose good fortune has allowed for careers and experiences in nearly all of his areas of interest: competitive sports, the military, teaching, politics, diplomacy, agriculture, venture capital, natural history, science, oil, gas, and dozens of practical jokes. Over the last 55 years, He has done business in 47 countries, several of which no longer exist.

Dr. Rand Irshaidat is Associate Professor in Marketing at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman, Jordan. She graduated in marketing from the University of Jordan and the University of Surrey. She received her Ph.D. in politics from York University, studying public diplomacy as a form of political marketing. She worked in banking before pursuing her Ph.D.

Professor Fahrettin Altun has served as Turkey’s communications director since July 25, 2018. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1976, he holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Istanbul University and a master’s degree in sociology from Mimar Sinan University. Altun received his doctorate from Istanbul University in 2006 with the thesis “A Comparative Analysis of McLuhan and Baudrillard’s Media Theories.” Altun was a visiting researcher at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City in 2002-2003. He was a member of the founding academic board of Istanbul Şehir University and a founding coordinator of the School of Communication. He chaired the Department of Communication at Istanbul Şehir University between 2008 and 2014. Altun proceeded to teach sociology at Istanbul Medeniyet University between 2015 and 2017. Altun was the general coordinator of SETA Istanbul and deputy general coordinator of the SETA Foundation in 2014-2018, while also serving as dean of the School of Communication at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul. In addition to serving as editor-in-chief of Kriter, a monthly magazine, Altun contributed as a commentator to TRT 1’s “Enine Boyuna” and “Dışa Bakış” on TRT Haber and wrote a column for the newspapers Sabah and Daily Sabah. Having previously hosted the show “Ayrıntı” on TRT 2 and TRT Haber, he worked as an editor with the publishers Yöneliş and Küre, as an editor-in-chief at the magazine Anlayış, and a columnist at the newspaper Akşam. Altun has authored the book The Theory of Modernization, and is a co-author of The Triumph of Turkish Democracy: The July 15 Coup Attempt and Its Aftermath, The Origins of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Strategy, Press Freedom in Turkey: Myths and Facts, and Media on July 15, which were published by SETA.

George Szamuely, Ph.D., is senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute in London and author of Bombs for Peace: NATO’s Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia (2014). He has taught at universities in New York, Budapest, and Belgrade and worked at the Times Literary Supplement and National Law Journal and contributed to many publications, including the Daily Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, New York Press, The American Scholar, The National Interest, Orbis, and Counterpunch.

Jeremy Havardi is a historian and journalist based in London. He was educated at Haberdashers Aske’s School before studying at Bristol University and King’s College, London. He holds degrees in philosophy, history, and law. He has written four books, Falling to Pieces, a philosophical study of self-deception; The Greatest Briton, a set of essays on the life and political philosophy of Winston Churchill; Projecting Britain at War, an analytical study of British films about the Second World War; and Refuting the Anti-Israel Narrative, a detailed and comprehensive critique of the charges made against Israel today. His articles have been published widely, appearing in The Guardian, The Spectator, The Australian Jewish News, The Commentator, The Times of Israel, and The Gatestone Institute. He is also a regular columnist for the London based Jewish News. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.