Shivshankar Menon is currently visiting professor at Ashoka University, India, and Chair of the Ashoka Centre for China Studies.

He is also a Distinguished Fellow with the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi, Trustee on the International Crisis Group, and Senior Fellow at the Kissinger Centre, John’s Hopkins University.

He was National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Jan 2010-May 2014; Foreign Secretary of India, October 2006-July 2009; and has served as the Indian Ambassador or High Commissioner to China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Israel.

He has published “Choices; Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy” (2016), “India and Asian Geopolitics; The Past, Present” (2021), and “India in a World Adrift” (2025).

T C A Raghavan is a former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan (2013-15). He had earlier served as Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan (2003-2007) and High Commissioner to Singapore from 2009 to 2013. He was Director General of the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi from 2018 to 2021. He the Joint Secretary dealing with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2007 to 2009. He is a member of the Governing Council of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi, Adjunct Professor, School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Study, Bangalore and Visiting Professor, Centre for South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawahar Lal Nehru University.
He was awarded a PhD by the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1992. He is a recipient of the Jadunath Sarkar Gold Medal for 2024 by the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
He is the author of a number of well received history books : Attendant Lords, Bairam Khan and Abdur Rahim – Courtiers and Poets in Mughal India (HarperCollins, 2017) awarded the Mohammad Habib Memorial Prize by the Indian History Congress in December 2017; ‘The People Next Door- The Curious History of India’s Relations with Pakistan’, (Hurst & Co, 2017); History Men: Jadunath Sarkar, G S Sardesai, Raghubir Sinh and Their Quest for India’s Past (HarperCollins, 2020) and (coauthored) Sapru House, A Story of Institution Building in World Affairs (ICWA, 2021). His latest book is Circles of Freedom: Friendship, Love and Loyalty in the Indian National Struggle (Juggernaut, 2024).

Manu S. Pillai is a historian and the author of five books, most recently Gods, Guns & Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity. A winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for his first book, The Ivory Throne, he is also a columnist at Mint Lounge. Manu holds a PhD in history from King’s College London, and is a winner of several other awards including the Crossword Book Prize, the Muse India Young Writer Award, and the Tata Lit Live Prize.

Lisa Curtis is Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. She is a foreign policy and national security expert with over 20 years of service in the U.S. government. Her work has centered on U.S. policy toward the Indo-Pacific, particularly South Asia. From 2017 to 2021, Curtis served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South and Central Asia at the NSC. During her tenure at the NSC, she coordinated U.S. policy development and implementation of the South Asia Strategy signed by President Trump in August 2017 and the U.S. Strategy for Central Asia 2019-2025, which was published by the State Department in January 2020. She also contributed to the Indo-Pacific Strategic Framework and coordinated policies designed to strengthen the U.S.-India partnership, resulting in a widely recognized elevation of the relationship. Curtis received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in December 2020 in recognition of her work at the NSC.
From 2006 to 2017, Curtis was Senior Fellow on South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, where she appeared regularly in the media and provided frequent Congressional testimony. She also served as Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2003 to 2006), Senior Advisor in the South Asia Bureau at the State Department (2001 to 2003), senior analyst on South Asia at the CIA (1996 to 2001), and as a diplomat at the U.S. Embassies in Pakistan and India (1994 to 1997).
Curtis has published commentary in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, NPR.org, and other media outlets and has made multiple appearances on CNN, Fox News, BBC, PBS, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. She is currently Board Chair of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Board Member of Women for Afghanistan, Member of the Leadership Council of Women in National Security (LCWINS), and a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Suhasini Haidar is the Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu, where she writes on foreign policy and anchors the weekly show WorldView. She has nearly three decades of experience, including roles as Foreign Affairs Editor and anchor at CNN-IBN and as Correspondent for CNN International. Recipient of numerous awards, she has reported on major conflicts across South Asia and the Middle East.

Prof. Mohan is a Distinguished Professor & Senior Fellow Designate, MJIAS, and a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore, and was previously the Director of ISAS. Raja Mohan was the founding director of Carnegie India in Delhi, the sixth international center of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. He was associated with several Indian think tanks, including the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses, the Observer Research Foundation, and the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. He was a Professor of South Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore. He served on India’s National Security Advisory Board and was the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Kluge Center, US Library of Congress, Washington, DC, during 2009-10. He convened the India chapter of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 1995 to 2005. He has published widely on India’s foreign and security policies, Asian geopolitics, and the global governance of advanced technologies. He is a columnist for Foreign Policy and the Indian Express.

Ian Hall is a Professor of International Relations at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. He is also an honorary fellow of the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne and an Executive Editor of the journal Asian Security. Prior to joining Griffith University, he taught at St Andrews, the University of Adelaide, and the Australian National University, and served as a co-editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, the University of St Andrews, and the Australian National University.

Professor Hall’s research focuses on India’s foreign and security policies, as well as on the intellectual history of international relations. He has written three books and edited several more, and published scholarly articles in several prominent international journals, including the European Journal of International Relations, International Affairs, and Third World Quarterly.
His research has been funded by grants from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Department of Defence, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has participated in multiple dialogues involving officials and experts from India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea, and with the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan ran an annual Australia-India-Japan Trilateral until 2023. He is often quoted in the media.

Rajat Kathuria is Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Shiv Nadar University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park and degrees from the Delhi School of Economics and St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Before joining Shiv Nadar University in 2021, Professor Kathuria served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) from 2012 to 2021, steering India’s leading independent think tank through a period of significant global economic transformation. His career spans three decades across academia, policy advisory, and international institutions. He held senior positions at TRAI—the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India including Economic Advisor contributing to India’s telecommunications revolution during its formative years.

His research traverses international trade, regulation and competition policy, the digital economy, and climate economics. He has served on numerous government committees, including the Ministry of Environment’s Implementation Committee for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Committee on International Trade Policy, and advisory roles with the Competition Commission of India and the National Statistical Commission. His work has informed policy at the highest levels while maintaining rigorous academic standards.

Professor Kathuria has published in peer-reviewed journals and authored several books on trade, telecommunications, and economic development. He writes regularly for leading newspapers engaging public discourse on economic policy.

He has spoken at international forums including the OECD, World Bank, BRICS, G20 among others and serves on editorial boards of academic journals. Professor Kathuria represented India in international table tennis tournaments from 1981 to 1987, competing at World, Commonwealth, and Asian championships.