Professor Norman Stone

Professor of Modern History at Oxford University from 1984 to 1997, and currently Professor of International Relations and Director of the Russian-Turkish Centre at Bilkent University, Ankara. A one time adviser to Margaret Thatcher, he divides his time between Turkey and Oxford.

His latest book, The Atlantic and its Enemies, (Allen Lane, 2010) has been an acclaimed success and follows his brilliant one volume, World War One (Allen Lane, 2007).

He became lecturer in Russian and German History at Cambridge and subsequently Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. His early work, The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (1975) won the Wolfson Prize.

This was followed by Hitler (1980), and Europe Transformed 1878-1919 (1983). A frequent commentator over two decades in the British press, he has also written for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Wall Street Journal and spoke at the 2010 Hay Literary Festival.

Frits Bolkestein

A former Dutch Minister of Trade and Minister of Defence, from 1999- 2004 he was European Commissioner responsible for Internal Market, Taxation and the Customs Union . During this period he steered the Services Directive and gained the reputation as “the Conservatives’ Commissioner”.

He studied mathematics, philosophy, Greek and economics at the Universities of Oregon (USA), Amsterdam and London. In 1965 he received his master’s degree in law at the University of Leiden. From 1960 to 1976 he held several posts within the Shell Group in East Africa, Central America, Indonesia, London and Paris. He started his political career in 1978 and for many years served as a Member of Parliament for the V V D, the Dutch Liberal Party.

In 2004, he became a visiting professor in ‘Intellectual Backgrounds of Political Developments’ at the Universities of Leiden and Delft. He is currently president of the Telders-foundation, the think-tank connected with the V V D, member of the supervisory board of the Central Bank of The Netherlands and non-executive director of Air France-KLM. He is author of books and articles on Dutch politics and a wide range of topical issues as well as an English-language play, Floris, Count of Holland (1976), under the nom-deplume Niels Kobet.

Vikram Sood

The former Head of India’s external intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), from January 2001 to March 2003. Since retiring from RAW, he has been a commentator on international affairs participating in conferences and seminars on matters relating to security, terrorism and foreign policy. From 2004 to 2008 he contributed a fortnightly column – “Perspectives” – to the Hindustan Times, while contributing to other journals, newspapers and magazines, such as the Indian Defence Review, Force, the Asian Age, Mail Today, The Hindu, the Times of India, the Pioneer, Business World, Eternal India and Tehelka.

He is currently Vice President of the Centre for International Relations at Observer Research Foundation, an independent public policy think-tank based in Delhi. He is also associated with the Centre for Policy Alternatives and maintains a blog of his perspectives on current affairs at www.soodvikram.blogspot.com

Giles Merritt

Director of the Security & Defence Agenda (SDA), he is among Brussels’ most influential commentators. He has been a pioneer of the public policy debate on Europe’s future, both as a journalist and think-tanker.

He is also the head of the SDA’s sister think-tank Friends of Europe, whose debates and reports cover the whole spectrum of non-defence topics of interest to EU-level policymakers, researchers and stakeholders. In addition, he is the Editor of the policy journal Europe’s World, launched in 2005 as an EU-wide platform for debate.

From 1968-83, he was a staff correspondent of the Financial Times and reported successively from London, Paris, Belfast/ Dublin and Brussels. Since 1984 he has contributed to the International Herald Tribune.

Professor Zdzislaw Krasnodebski

Prof. Krasnodebski has been Professor of European Studies at the University of Bremen since 2000. He is also Professor of Sociology at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw and is visiting Professor at the Catholic University of America and at Columbia University, NYC.

He is currently a member of the Advisory Boards of the Polish Institute of Foreign Affairs, the Bremen German-Polish Society and the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. He is a prolific author and contributor to newspapers and weeklies and appears regularly on television commentating on political and social issues.