Martin Palouš studied natural science, philosophy, and international law and was Senior Fellow and Director of the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Democracy at Florida International University. He is President of International Platform for Human Rights in Cuba and belonged to the original signatories of Charter 77, serving as its spokesperson in 1986, and in 1989 participated in the creation of Civic Forum during Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution. After the fall of communism, he was a member of parliament, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the United States (2001-2005), and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations (2006-2011). He has lectured at many universities around the world and is the author of numerous publications in political philosophy, contemporary history, international relations, and international law.

Akhmed Zakaev is the Prime Minister in Exile of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI). He was born in 1959 into a family deported, along with the rest of the Chechen population, by Stalin’s regime in 1944. Zakaev graduated from acting and choreography schools in Grozny. In 1977, he was admitted to Voronezh State Academy of Arts and subsequently worked at the Chechen National Theatre. In 1994 he became Minister of Culture of the independent Chechen government of Djohar Dudaev and Commander of the Western Group for the Defense of Ichkeria. Zakaev played a crucial role in negotiations with Moscow, which led to the Russo-Chechen peace treaty of 1997, which Russia later violated. He opposed the rise of radical Islam in Chechnya, alleging a link between Islamist extremism and Russia’s covert global pro-terrorism policy. In 2002, Russia accused Zakaev, by then in exile, of involvement in a series of crimes, including the hostage-taking at a Moscow theatre in 2002 which ended in a catastrophic loss of life. In 2003, a British court declared the accusations groundless and politically motivated. On February 25, 2022, the second day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zakaev issued a statement at a rally in defense of Ukraine before the European Parliament in Brussels. Zakaev has spoken in the European Parliament and the legislatures of Italy, Lithuania, Romania, and other countries. He is the author of Subjugate or Exterminate! (Academica Press, 2018) and Russia, Chechnya, and the West (Academica Press, 2022).

Translator: Arch Tait learned Russian in London and at Moscow State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Russian Literature from the University of Cambridge and from 1993 was UK editor of the Glas New Russian Writing translation series. He has translated more than forty books by leading Russian authors of fiction and non-fiction, including Alexei Navalny’s Patriot, which was voted Book of the Year at the 2025 British Book Awards and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography in the United States. He has translated books by Nobel Prize winners Mikhail Gorbachev and Svetlana Alexiyevich, as well as the first two volumes of the memoirs of Akhmed Zakaev.

Jayme A. Sokolow is an independent scholar and businessman who holds a Ph.D. in History from New York University. He is the author of four previous books on American history and the history of the Western Hemisphere, three eBooks on developing government proposals, and articles on history and business development. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Dr. Kawal Deep Kour holds a Ph.D. from IIT Guwahati and is a former civil servant (Assam Civil Services). She is currently Director at the SA–Drugs and Addictions Research Council, New Delhi. Dr. Kour served on the Board of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), UK (2017–2022), and was nominated in 2023 to the Network of Experts of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). A prolific author, she has several publications to her credit, including Ghazipur, The Opium Mint: From 1820 to the Present (Academica Press, 2023) and Opium Consumption and Experience in India: From the Earliest to Contemporary Times (Academica Press, 2023).

Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a distinguished American diplomat, scholar, and innovative thinker with a 26-year Foreign Service career (1984–2010). Serving in Warsaw during the Cold War’s end, as well as in Moscow, Riyadh, Manama, and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Saudi Arabia (2004–2008), he navigated complex political dynamics in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As Senior Political Advisor to General David Petraeus at U.S. Central Command (2008–2010), he shaped Middle East and Central Asia strategies. After his retirement, Gfoeller advised ExxonMobil, consulted for Henry Kissinger, and lectured at Georgetown University. An accomplished scholar, he authored books on the traditional architecture and antiquities of Armenia, where he established an archeological foundation and museum. His recent book Consciousness is Curvature (Academica Press, 2025) models human and artificial intelligence as dynamic geometric curvature in informational spaces, inspired by relativity and quantum theory. In Faster Than Light (Academica Press, 2026), he explores how recent advances in theoretical physics can enable feasible interstellar travel, inaugurating a new Age of Exploration that may never end. In Resonant Memory (Academica Press, 2026), he proposes mathematical laws of history based upon the theory of morphic resonance, the mathematics of Quantum Field Theory, and the concept of three-dimensional time.

Dr. Kawal Deep Kour holds a Ph.D. from IIT Guwahati and is a former civil servant (Assam Civil Services). She is currently Director at the SA–Drugs and Addictions Research Council, New Delhi. Dr. Kour served on the Board of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), UK (2017–2022), and was nominated in 2023 to the Network of Experts of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). A prolific author, she has several publications to her credit, including Ghazipur, The Opium Mint: From 1820 to the Present (Academica Press, 2023) and Opium Consumption and Experience in India: From the Earliest to Contemporary Times (Academica Press, 2023).

Nicholas H. Wolfinger is Professor of Family and Consumer Studies and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Utah, where he has taught since 1998. He is the author of four books, most recently Thanks for Nothing: The Economics of Single Motherhood since 1980 (Oxford University Press, 2024). In 2025, Wolfinger edited Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations (Academica Press, 2025), a groundbreaking anthology of accounts by faculty members who told of their investigations by campus authorities. Wolfinger’s work has appeared in the Atlantic, Mother Jones, National Review, and various academic journals. Between 2016 and 2021, his university investigated him three times.

Suheyb Öğüt was born in Mecca in 1982. He studied Political Science at Istanbul Bilgi University and completed there a Cultural Studies M.A. program he had begun at Sabancı University with a thesis titled Pornography and Veiling: Two Differentials of Sovereignty. Following sustained mobbing at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, he withdrew from the Sociology Ph.D. program there and transferred to Yıldırım Beyazıt University, where he completed his doctoral dissertation, Leviathan as the Symptom of Being. His doctoral dissertation was published by Academica Press under the title Being and Symptom: The Intersection of Sociology, Lacanian Psychoanalysis, and Continental Philosophy. During his doctoral studies, he also received a classical theology education. For nearly ten years, he has given seminars on philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis, and film analysis for various civil society organizations. He is currently a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Marmara University in Istanbul.

Gino Neil Lupini was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, to an Italian father and British mother. He was educated at South African College Schools (SACS), the oldest school in the country, where he developed a lifelong passion for history, education, and sports. Upon completing his schooling, Lupini embarked on a professional rugby career that led him to Italy, where he proudly represented the Italian National Rugby Team. After retiring from professional sports, he transitioned into the field of education, where he continues to inspire young minds through teaching and writing. Lupini’s literary journey began under a pen name with a fantasy novel for young adults, followed by two additional works that reimagined the ideals of folklore through a modern lens. His enduring fascination with history led to a pivotal encounter with Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, the de jure King of Italy. This meeting marked the beginning of Lupini’s close collaboration with the Italian Royal House, to which he contributed to charitable, cultural, and traditional initiatives across Europe. His service to the House of Savoy earned him recognition in the form of a Knighthood in the dynastic order of chivalry. He continues to advocate for the transformative power of education and the enduring relevance of historical consciousness in shaping modern identity.

David H. Rundell is widely regarded as one of America’s leading Middle East experts. After studying economics at Colgate and Arabic at Oxford, he embarked on a thirty-year diplomatic career. He is particularly noted for his expertise on Saudi Arabia, where he served as Chief of Mission, Deputy Chief of Mission, Political Counselor, Economic Counselor, and Commercial Counselor. He was stationed in Saudi Arabia during both Operation Desert Storm and the 2003 Al-Qaeda insurrection. He played important roles in negotiating Saudi entry into the World Trade Organization and is the author of the highly regarded book Vision of Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads.

Ambassador Michael Gfoeller (ret.) is a distinguished U.S. diplomat with a 26-year career in the State Department, serving in key posts across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Poland, and Belgium, retiring in 2010. He advised General David Petraeus at U.S. Central Command, providing strategic insights on Middle Eastern affairs. After retirement, Gfoeller led ExxonMobil’s Middle East and North Africa government affairs, leveraging his deep regional expertise. A committed philanthropist, he founded the Gfoeller Renaissance Foundation, dedicated to advancing archeological research and cultural preservation in Armenia. His extensive diplomatic experience and leadership in energy and cultural initiatives reflect a legacy of effective global engagement.