Elena Atanassova-Cornelis is Senior Lecturer in International Relations of the Asia-Pacific at the Department of Politics, University of Antwerp, and Professeur at the School of Political and Social Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, both in Belgium. Her research interests and expertise include international relations, security and strategic studies with a focus on Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, as well as Asia-Europe relations. She has authored numerous academic articles, book chapters, briefing papers and policy reports, and has vast experience in academic and executive teaching in Europe and Asia. She is the co-editor (with Frans-Paul van der Putten) of Changing Security Dynamics in East Asia: A Post-US Regional Order in the Making? (2014).

Yoichiro Sato is Professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan. He has published more than ten books including The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance (co-edited with Takashi Inoguchi and G. John Ikenberry, 2011), Regional Institutions, Geopolitics and Economics in the Asia Pacific (co-edited with Steve Rothman and Utpal Vyas, 2017), and Re-Rising Japan (co-edited with Hidekazu Sakai, 2017). His commentaries have appeared in various global media, including Time, Newsweek, Al Jazeera, Agence Presse Francais, and Nikkei Asian Review.

Tom Sauer is Professor of International Politics at Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium. He is an expert on international security, and more in particular on nuclear arms control, and he is the spokesman of the university's Research Group of International Politics. He is the co editor (with Jorg Kustermans and Barbara Segaert) of Non-Nuclear Peace: Beyond the Nuclear Ban Treaty (2020); as well as the co-editor (with Brecht Volders) of Nuclear Terrorism: Countering the Threat (2016).