Purnaka L. de Silva, Ph.D., is Adjunct Professor, School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, and Director, Institute for Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta. He has over thirty-years-experience in conflict and peace studies—with special focus on political violence, paramilitaries, counterterrorism, and transnational security, as well as the role of diplomacy within the United Nations system.

Audrey E. Kitagawa, J.D., is President/Founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation, President of the Light of Awareness International Spiritual Family, and Chair of the Anti-Racism Initiative and the Gender Equality Working Group of the G20 Interfaith Forum. She is the former Advisor to the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict at the UN, a UN Representative for the URI, a member of the Advisory Council of the Global Security Institute, and a Board member of the International Center for Religion and Democracy. She has been listed in Who’s Who of American Law, Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, and Prominent People of Hawaii. She was enstooled into the royal family of Ajiyamanti, Ghana as the Nekoso Hemaa (Queen Mother of Development) where a school she helped to build, the Nana Ode Anyankobea Junior Secondary School, is named after her.