Brahma Chellaney is a professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi and a member of the Distinguished Expert Panels of CPG’s Peace & Security (CPSC). As one of India’s leading geostrategists, he formerly served as a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board, where he was an author of India’s nuclear doctrine. He also coined the term “debt-trap diplomacy” to describe how the Chinese government leverages the debt burden of smaller countries for geopolitical ends. Professor Chellaney is a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin and an affiliate of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London. He has held appointments at Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and the Australian National University. Additionally, he was a fellow at the Nobel Institute in Oslo and The Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC . His numerous peer-reviewed papers have been published in major journals, including International Security, Orbis, Survival, Terrorism, Washington Quarterly, Nature, Security Studies, and Asian Survey. He is the author of nine books, including the international bestseller Asian Juggernaut (Harper Collins). His book Water: Asia’s New Battleground (Georgetown University Press) won the Bernard Schwartz Award.

Dr. Rahul Mishra is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Prior to returning to his Alma Mater from which he received his PhD, he served as the Director of the Centre for ASEAN Regionalism at Universiti Malaya (CARUM), and Coordinator of European Studies Programme at the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya. He is widely recognized as an imminent expert on politico-security affairs of the Southeast and East Asian region, ASEAN-EU regionalism, comparative regionalism, and the role of major and middle powers in the Indo-Pacific region, especially in the context of China’s rise. He is the author of several seminal books on international relations in Asia, including Asia and Europe in the 21st Century (2021, together with Hashim Azirah and Milner Anthony; India’s Eastward Engagement: From Antiquity to Act East Policy (2019, together with S. D. Muni); and Integrating North East in India’s Act East Policy (2018, together with Jha P.) As a columnist, he publishes with multiple leading media outlets, including Deutsche Welle, Japan Times, Financial Times, Channel News Asia, New Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Asia Times, Indian Express, The Sunday Guardian, ASPI, RUSI, and Lowy Institute.

H.E. Son Soubert is High Privy Councillor to His Majesty the King of Cambodia since 2010. As an educator, politician, and humanitarian, he has an impressive record of involvement in the political life of the Kingdom of Cambodia throughout decades. Having been the second Vice-President of the National Assembly, he was also appointed to the Constitutional Council by His Majesty the King of Cambodia and served as Vice-President of the Cambodian Red Cross. Among other positions, he was Secretary General of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front (KPNLAF), a founder of the Khmer Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party (BLDP), and President of the Son Sann Party and a member of Parliament during the takeover of the administration by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia in 1992-1993. Educated in archaeology and classics in France, Son Soubert was Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology of the Royal University for Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. He received the Ordre des Palmes for Culture for his major contributions to French education and culture.

Dr. Jingdong Yuan is a Senior Researcher and Director of the China and Asia Security Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. His research focuses on Indo–Pacific security, Chinese foreign policy, Sino–Indian relations, China–European Union relations, and nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. Previously, has held visiting appointments at the National University of Singapore, University of Macau, East-West Center, National Cheng-chi University, Mercator Institute for China Studies, Fudan University, Berlin Social Sciences Centre (WZB), and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). He is the co-author of Chinese Cruise Missiles: a quiet force-multiplier (2014) and China and India: cooperation or Conflict? (2003), and co-editor of Engaging China: How Australia Can Lead the Way Again (2023), Trump’s America and International Relations in the Indo–Pacific (2021), and Australia and China at 40 (2012). His publications have appeared in numerous journals and edited volumes, including “The United States and Stability in the Taiwan Strait,” and “External and Domestic Drivers of Nuclear Trilemma in Southern Asia: China, India, and Pakistan,” among others.