Terry Gross

Before most Americans had heard of the Taliban, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote a book about them. After the Sept. 11 attacks, it became a best-seller. Rashid's recent reporting for English-language newspapers involves Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Middle East peace expert Sari Nusseibeh is the founder of the Palestinian Consultancy Group and the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization, the president of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem and a professor of Islamic philosophy. He co-wrote the People's Voice Initiative to build grassroots support for a two-state solution. Until December 2002, he was the representative of the Palestinian National Authority in Jerusalem.

Peace negotiator Yossi Beilin is a member of Israel's Knesset (Parliament) and chairman of the Meretz-Yachad party. Dr. Beilin has had posts in the governments of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak. Beilin held unofficial peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in 2003, which led to the Geneva Initiative, and was one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993.