Dr. Donna J. Nincic is Professor and Director of the ABS School of Maritime Policy and Management at the California Maritime Academy, California State University.  She received her doctorate in Political Science/International Relations from New York University, and has held previous positions at the University of California, Davis; the Hoover Institution; and the US Department of Defense.  Her research focuses on maritime security, particularly piracy and terrorism.   Her recent publications include “The Challenge of Maritime Terrorism: Threat Identification, WMD, and Regime Response,” Journal of Strategic Studies (August 2005), “Maritime Security as Energy Security: Current Threats and Challenges”, in Luft, G., and Konin, A., eds. Energy Security: Challenges for the 21-Century (2009), “Statskollaps og Sjørøveriets Tilbakekomst.  (State Failure and the Re-emergence of Maritime Piracy),” Internasjonal Politikk (January 2009), “Maritime Piracy: Implications for Maritime Energy Security,” Journal of Energy Security (February 2009), “Maritime Piracy in Africa,”  Journal of African Security (September 2009), and “The ‘Radicalization’ of Maritime Piracy: Implications for Maritime Energy Security,” Journal of Energy Security (December 2010).  Her current research focuses on maritime piracy in Africa, and maritime resource conflict issues.Donna can be reach at either info@iags.org or DNincic@csum.edu

Dr. Nancy E. Brune is a Senior Policy Analyst/Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories where she works on issues of energy security, national security, foreign policy, technology and policy, climate change and human impacts, and non proliferation. Prior to joining Sandia, she was the Director of Research and Policy at the Institute for Security Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she worked on issues of homeland security and also served as the director of the Energy Security Policy Initiative. Brune has spoken about and authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, reports, essays and op-ed pieces on energy security, national security, globalization, privatization, financial liberalization, immigration and public health issues. Dr. Brune is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and Women in International Security, and is a Truman National Security Project fellow. Brune has consulted for the Harvard School of Public Health, JP Morgan Chase, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the World Bank. She currently teaches at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico and the College of Southern Nevada.

Hooman Peimani (Ph.D.) is the Head of the  Energy Security Division at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore.   Drawing on his years of work experience, he specializes in energy (energy security) and security (regional/international), particularly those of South and West Asia, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.  Having worked at different senior capacities, his diversified employment engagements in North America, Europe and West Asia include working for academic (e.g., Geneva School of Diplomacy & International Relations) and non-academic entities, including energy corporations (e.g., Nord Stream, Zug/Switzerland), private and public organizations (e.g., Canadian government) and national and international institutions such as UN agencies (e.g., UNICEF, UNCHR, UNRISD and WHO). He has over twelve years of experience as a freelance journalist working for many newspapers (e.g., South China Morning Post and Moscow Times) and news agencies (e.g., Inter Press Service/Berlin, International Relations and Security Network/Zurich and Eurasianet/New York), his employment experience also includes working for research institutes (e.g., Jane’s Defence/UK, Centre for International Cooperation and Security/UK, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and Arab Petroleum Research Center/France). He has extensive field experience in West and South Asia and the Asia/Pacific region, including Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey and South East Asia.

Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies (a joint appointment at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst) and Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies (PAWSS), positions he has held since 1985. Professor Klare has written widely on U.S. defense policy, the arms trade, and global resource politics.  He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy (2008), Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (2004), and Resource Wars (2001).  
He is also the defense correspondent of The Nation magazine and a Contributing Editor of Current History.  He has contributed articles to these journals and many others, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Harper's, Newsweek, and Scientific American. Klare has also worked with many non-governmental organizations and currently serves on the board of directors of the Arms Control Association and the National Priorities Project.