Rob Weighill is a retired major-general and independent consultant operating in strategic risk, resilience and defence. He spent five years at NATO's multinational headquarters in Naples, led the planning of NATO's Libyan intervention and directed operations from Joint Force Command.

Florence Gaub is Deputy Director at the EU Institute for Security Studies; previously, she was employed at NATO Defense College. Her first book, Guardians of the Arab State: When Militaries Intervene in Politics, from Iraq to Mauritania, also available from Oxford University Press.