Ambassador Timothy Carney served until his retirement as a career officer of the US Foreign Service. After postings in South Africa , Cambodia , and Indonesia , he was Director of the Information Component of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, and US Ambassador in Sudan and in Haiti .

Ambassador Barry Desker is the Director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University , Singapore . He was Singapore 's Ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1993, and served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Trade Development Board from 1994 to 2000. Most recently he has served as Co-Chair of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).

Professor John English, OC is Executive Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Professor of History at the University of Waterloo . From 1993 to 1997 he was a Member of the Canadian Parliament. In 2001 he was awarded the Order of Canada for his distinguished work in Canadian history and international relations, and he is the current Chair of the Canadian Museum of Civilization He is author of The Life of Lester Pearson (Vols I-II, 1989-1992).

Mr Greg Fry is Hedley Bull Fellow in the Department of International Relations and Director of Studies in International Affairs at the Australian National University . He has also held appointments as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University , and at the University of the South Pacific and the University of Hawaii . He edited Australia's Regional Security (1991) and co-edited Contending Images of World Politics (2000).

Dr Sandy Gordon teaches in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University College , University of New South Wales . His career has included appointments in the Office of National Assessments, and as Executive Director of the Asian Studies Council, as well as a diplomatic posting in the Australian High Commission to India . From 1990 to 1996 he was a Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University where he published extensively on South Asia, the Gulf and the Indian Ocean . He is author of India's Rise to Power in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (1995).

Mr Allan Gyngell is Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He joined the Australian Department of External Affairs in 1969 and served in Rangoon , Singapore and Washington . He spent some years working for the Office of National Assessments, and also headed the International Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He was appointed in 1993 as foreign policy adviser to the Australian Prime Minister. He is co-author (with Michael Wesley) of Making Australian Foreign Policy (2003).

Mr Salman Haidar was Foreign Secretary of India from 1995-1997 and earlier served as India 's Ambassador to Bhutan and to China , and as Indian High Commissioner in London .

Professor Stuart Harris, AO is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University . He was Professor of Resource Economics and Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies from 1975 to 1984, before taking up in 1984 the position of Secretary of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (subsequently Foreign Affairs and Trade) which position he relinquished in 1988. His research interests include Australia 's foreign policy, the changing global economy, and superpower relations with Northeast Asia . His recent publications have included co-edited books on The End of the Cold War in Northeast Asia (1991) and China as a Great Power (1995).

Mr James C. Ingram, AO is a former Australian Ambassador to the Philippines and High Commissioner to Canada . He joined the Australian Department of External Affairs in 1950, and had postings in Tel Aviv, Washington , and Jakarta . He has served as National Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs , and from 1982-1992 was Executive Director of the World Food Program

Mr Colin Keating is a practising lawyer in Wellington , New Zealand , and is a former Secretary for Justice in the Government of New Zealand. He served as New Zealand 's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and in 1994 was President of the United Nations Security Council. In 2002, he was invited to sit on the UN Secretary-General's External Review Committee to advise on the UN's internal reform process.

Dr Pauline Kerr is Fellow and Director of Studies at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy. Before joining the College, she had served as Academic coordinator, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra; Academic Adviser, Australian Defence College; and Research Fellow in International Relations at The Australian National University. She is co-author (with Desmond Ball) of Presumptive Engagement: Australia 's Asia-Pacific Security Policy in the 1990s (1996).

Ms Martine Letts is Secretary-General of Australian Red Cross, and a member of the Council of the Australian National University . In the course of a 17-year career with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade before joining Red Cross, she had postings in Suva , Geneva , and Vienna , culminating in service as the Australian Ambassador to Argentina , Uruguay and Paraguay . She specialised in arms control and disarmament, and is shortly to take up a new appointment at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

Mr W. Noel Levi, CBE served from 1998 to 2004 as Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum. From 1980-1982, he was Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea, and he subsequently served as Papua New Guinea 's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China , and as High Commissioner in London , as well as Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council from 1995 to 1997.

Professor Andrew Macintyre is Director of the Asia-Pacific School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University . Formerly Professor of Political Science at the University of California at San Diego, he is author of Business and Politics in Indonesia (1991) and The Power of Institutions: Political Architecture and Governance (2003)

Professor Wiliam Maley, AM is Director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University . He is author of The Afghanistan Wars (2002); edited Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (1998, 2001); and co-edited From Civil Strife to Civil Society: Civil and Military Responsibilities in Disrupted States (2003).

Mr John McFarlane is a Visiting Fellow in the University of New South Wales Defence Studies Forum . Formerly the Executive Director of the Australian Member Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia -Pacific (CSCAP) and Director of Intelligence of the Australian Federal Police, his interests include Australian and international defence and security policy, transnational organised crime, and the politics of corruption.

Professor Christian Reus-Smit is Head of the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University , author of The Moral Purpose of the State (1999) and American Power and World Order (2004), and editor of 17-Nov-2005

Professor Amin Saikal is Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University , and author of Islam and the West: Conflict or Cooperation (2002), and Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival (2004).

Dr Heather Smith is currently General Manager of the International Economic Division at the Australian Treasury. From September 2000 until February 2003 she was Head of the International Economy Branch at the Office of National Assessments, Australian Government. She was Australia 's academic representative at the '1995 APEC Next Generations Program', and in 1996/97 was a guest scholar at The Brookings Institution, Washington DC . She received her PhD in Economics from the Australian National University in 1994.

Major-General Michael Smith, AO is Chief Executive Officer of AUSTCARE, and previously served as UN Deputy Force Commander in East Timor . He is author of Peacekeeping in East Timor: The Path to Independence (2003).

Professor Ramesh Thakur is Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo . He is co-editor of Enhancing Global Governance; Towards a New Diplomacy (2002).

Professor William T. Tow is Professor of International Relations at Griffith University , Editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs , and author of Asia-Pacific Strategic Relations: Seeking Convergent Security (2001),

Dr Elsina Wainwright is Program Director (Strategy and International) at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute , and has also worked as a consultant political analyst for the International Crisis Group in Bosnia . A former Rhodes Scholar, she holds a DPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, where she was Lecturer in Politics at Oriel College and a Tutor in Politics at Christ Church.

Professor Peter Wallensteen has held the Dag Hammarskjöld Chair in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden since 1985. His most recent books include Understanding Conflict Resolution: War, Peace and the Global System (2002), and the co-edited Making Targeted Sanctions Effective: Guidelines for the Implementation of UN Policy Options (2003). During the academic year 2004-2005, he is a Visiting Professor at the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (ACPACS), University of Queensland .

Professor Michael Wesley is Director of the Griffith Asia Pacific Research Institute. Formerly Assistant Director-General, Transnational Issues Branch, Office of National Assessments, he is author of Casualties of the New World Order: The Causes of Failure of UN Missions to Civil Wars (1997) and co-author (with Allan Gyngell) of Making Australian Foreign Policy (2003).

Professor Hugh White is Director of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University . A graduate of Melbourne and Oxford Universities , he was previously Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.