Paul Salem is President of the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C, US. Prior to joining the MEI, he was the founding director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon between 2006 and 2013. He has also been director of the Fares Foundation, US, and he founded and directed the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Lebanon.

Ross Harrison is Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C, US. He is also a member of faculty at the Department of Political Science in the University of Pittsburgh, US. He was previously Professor in the Practice of International Affairs for the Master of Science in the Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University, US.