International affairs

Physicist David Albright is president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C. He's the co-author of a new report on A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, that was published in the Spring 2005 edition of The Washington Quarterly. Khan sold nuclear technology and information to Iran, Libya and North Korea. He was reportedly able to do this for the last 20 years, while eluding authorities and intelligence agencies. Albright says Khan's actions have had an impact on nuclear proliferation.

John Prendergast is Special Adviser to the President of the International Crisis Group. He has 20 years of experience attempting to resolve conflicts in Africa, and shaping U.S. foreign policy toward the region.

Former Marine Capt. Brian Steidle has been in the Darfur region of Western Sudan monitoring the humanitarian crisis there for the African Union. Steidle says there's no doubt that Sudan is in the midst of genocide.

Sidney Jones is the director of the International Crisis Group's South East Asia Project. She has examined separatist conflicts, ethnic conflict, and terrorism in the region, with much of her attention focused on work in Indonesia. We discuss how the Indian Ocean tsunami has affected the already politically unstable Indonesia.

Mark Bowden's article about the 25th anniversary of the Iranian Hostage crisis will be featured in the December issue The Atlantic Monthly. On Nov. 4, 1979 a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took hostage the entire American diplomatic team — which resulted in a 15-month international crisis that still has reverberations today. Bowden interviewed the former hostage-takers for his article.

Reid is Rocky Mountain bureau chief for The Washington Post. Previously he was the Post's London bureau chief, and their Tokyo bureau chief. He is also an NPR commentator. His new book is The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy.

Dr. Rowan Gillies is the International President of Midecins Sans Frontihres (Doctors Without Borders). He is a medical doctor and surgeon from Sydney, Australia. Dr. Gilles began working with Doctors Without Borders in 1998 as a field doctor in Afghanistan. Since then he has worked with the organization in Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Liberia. He recently returned from Sudan.

John Prendergast is the co-director of the Africa Program for the International Crisis Group. He's the author of the book God, Oil, and Country; Changing the Logic of War in Sudan. Before joining ICG, he was a special advisor to the U.S. State Department, where he worked on a number of issues, including Sudan policy.

Dr. Rowan Gillies is the International President of Midecins Sans Frontihres (Doctors Without Borders). He is a medical doctor and surgeon from Sydney, Australia. Dr. Gilles began working with Doctors Without Borders in 1998 as a field doctor in Afghanistan. Since then he has worked with the organization in Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Liberia. He recently returned from Sudan.

Graham Allison is an expert on nuclear weapons and national security. In his new book, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, he argues that avoiding a catastrophic nuclear event needs to be a higher priority for the U.S. government.