Our friends and authors
Ibrahim Al-Marashi is Assistant Professor of Middle East History at California State University San Marcos, and teaches courses on Italy and the Middle East at John Cabot University in Rome during the summer. His research primarily deals with the history of Iraq, and violent conflict in the Middle East. His current book project in progress is a history of the 1991 Gulf War from the perspective of the Iraqi military and the security and intelligence forces, focusing on the projection of violence against Iranian forces and Iraq’s Kurds. He is the co-author of Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History(Routledge, 2008). He obtained his D.Phil. in 2004in Modern History at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, completing a thesis on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Hassan Aourid Professor of political science and the Modern Arab world in the University of Rabat. Former spokesperson of the Royal Palace, and former Governor of Region. Author of many essays, and novels. Editorialist in a Monthly Magazine, "Zamane". Fluent in Arabic, French, and English.
Rupak Bhattacharjee , after completing PG and PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, worked for a number of research institutes and also briefly engaged in a teaching assignment. Currently, he is working as an independent analyst and contributed several articles to Indian research web sites like IDSA, IPCS and South Asia Monitor (SAM). Most of his articles appeared in SAM. Simultaneously, He's also contributing articles to numerous Indian weeklies, monthlies and newspapers, including the Hindustan Times and International media outlets such as the Asia Times and the HIMAL Southasian magazine. Rupak's area of specialisation is South Asia in general and Bangladesh in particular. He visited Bangladesh twice and at present, focusing on the war crimes trial and political developments there. He too has academic publications to his credit.
Walter C. Clemens, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Boston University; Associate, Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, 1963--. Detailed résumé https://www.bu.edu/polisci/
Anna Maria Cossiga specializes in Anthropology and Cultural Geography, especially focusing on cultural and religious identities and territory. Her main fields of interest and research are the Israeli-Palestinian conflict religious fundamentalism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam in comparative perspective, and the links between cultural identity and politics, especially in the international context. She has a BA in Anthroplogy and History of Religions and a Ph. D. in cultural Geography. She teaches Political Geography at Link Campus University in Rome.
Swee Lean Collin Koh is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). Collin’s primary research interest lies in naval affairs in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in Southeast Asia. His research revolves around concepts related to offense-defense theory, non-provocative defense and naval arms control. In this regard, Collin’s doctoral research focuses on naval modernization in Southeast Asia. Collin has experience teaching in various courses at the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute. He has published in various outlets, for instance the Naval War College Review, The Diplomat, PacNet and several book chapters. Collin also has a secondary interest in nuclear energy development in Southeast Asia, based on his earlier stint at the RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Studies from 2008 to 2010.
Giovanni Farese teaches Economic History and History of Economic Thought at the European University of Rome. He also teaches Economic History at LUISS Guido Carli University, where he received his Ph. D. He is author of articles and books on national and international institutions - and their creative circles - from the 1920s to the 1960s. He is Former Aspen Junior Fellow of the Aspen Institute Italia and Member of the Steering Committee of the Fondazione Ugo La Malfa, Rome. He lectured in Italy and abroad including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). He is Managing Editor of The Journal of European Economic History, Rome
Carlo Jean is President of the Centro Studi di Geopolitica Economica (CSGE). To see the cv Jean-CURRICULUM VITAE.doc (33792)
Raghbendra Jha, PhD (Columbia), FWIF, is Professor and Head Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. He works in the areas of public economics, macroeconomics and development economics and has published extensively in leading journals in these areas. His country of specialty is India. His websites are
https://www.crawford.anu.edu.
https://researchers.anu.edu.
Todd May is Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of the Humanities at Clemson University. He is the author of thirteen books of philosophy, including a forthcoming volume on nonviolent resistance. Much of his work is devoted to articulating a contemporary non-violent form of anarchism that draws from the thought of Michel Foucault and Jacques Ranciere. He has participated in and written about a number of progressive political campaigns, including divestment from South Africa under apartheid, gay rights, Palestinian rights, and anti-racism campaigns.
https://www.clemson.edu/caah/
Maurizio Melani, Extraordinary Professor of International Relations at the Link Campus University, former Director General in the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to Iraq, Representative to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union, Ambassador to Ethiopia. He is Board Member of the Italian Trade Promotion Agency and other organisations. He wrote books, essays and articles on international political and economic affairs, mainly on regional crisis, European common foreign and security policy, Middle East, Africa, trade and investment promotion.
Alberto Negri is war correspondent and writer from 1987 at Il Sole 24 Ore, the leading daily business newspaper in Italy. He writes about Middle East, Africa, Balkans, Central Asia. He is also a member of the board of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), of Cipmo (Center for Peace in Middle East) and member of italian board of Unrwa. He is the author of Il turbante e la corona. Iran, trent'anni dopo (The Turban and the Crown: Iran, Thirty Years After). He covers from 1980 the wars and the major political events of Middle East. In 2007 he was awarded with Prize Antonio Russo for war reportage, in 2009 with Maria Grazia Cutuli International Journalisti Prize, in 2014 with Colombe per la pace Prize.
Gianluca Pastori is Adjunct Professor of History of Political Relations between North America and Europe, Faculty of Political & Social Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
docenti.unicatt.it/ita/gianluca_pastori/
Ajit Kumar Singh joined South Asia Terrorism Portal in June 2005. Currently he is involved in research on Conflicts in South Asia. He has written extensively on all the Conflicts engulfing South Asia. His works have been published in several journals, magazines and news papers, both online and print. He has been extensively quoted in media. After completing his M. Phil. on "Emergence of Afghanistan as Buffer between Tsarist Russia and British Indian Empire (19th Century)", from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has submitted his Ph.D. thesis at the same School on "The Ethnic Conflict and State Structure in Afghanistan: 1989-2001".
Brig Deepak Sinha (Retd) has over three decades of service in the Indian Army’s Parachute Regiment. He is an M.A. and an M.Phil. In Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras. In addition, he has also attended the Armed Forces Certificate Course on Business Management from the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India. During his service he has held varied command, staff and instructional appointments and served on the faculty of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington as a Directing Staff and an instructor at the National Defence Academy, Pune, and at the Wangchuk Lo Dzong Military School, Bhutan. He has extensive experience in airborne special operations forces and counter insurgency operations having served in a Special Forces battalion in the North East and Jammu & Kashmir. He has also commanded India’s only rapid deployment force, 50th (Independent) Parachute Brigade and the Parachute Regiment Training Center. As Director Parachute and Special Forces at Army Headquarters he was responsible for the organizational, equipment identification/ procurement and training aspects of the Special Forces including conduct of joint training with the US Special Operations and the Russian Airborne Forces. He also headed the Indian Contingent participating in "Airborne Africa 2002" in Botswana, a biennial professional competition for Airborne and Special Forces from Africa and the world. The Indian team participated for the first time and was placed first from among 23 teams from over 15 countries including United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Malaysia and South Africa. He has held the Field Marshal Cariappa Chair of Excellence at the United Services Institution of India, New Delhi, in 2003-04 and is the author of the book "Beyond the Bayonet: Indian Special Operations Forces in the 21st Century", Gyan Publishers, Delhi, 2006. He has numerous other articles and papers on security issues to his credit. Prior to joining ORF as a Consultant he headed the Indian subsidiary of an MNC, ICD Security Solutions (India) Pvt Ltd, a part of the Convergent Co, USA.
Stewart Taggart, a former energy journalist, is principal of Sydney-based Grenatec (www.grenatec.com), a research organization studying the viabillity of a Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure of integrated gas pipelines, high-capacity power lines and fiber optics. He can be reached atgrenatec@grenatec.com
Carlyle A. Thayer is Emeritus Professor, The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra; he is also Director of Thayer Consultancy and a weekly defence and foreign affairs columnist for The Diplomat. He is also a Southeast Asia regional specialist with special expertise on Vietnam and South China Sea security issues. He is the author of over 500 publications including War By Other Means: National Liberation and Revolution in Vietnam, 1954-1960, Southeast Asia: Patterns of Security Cooperationand Vietnam People’s Army: Development and Modernization.