Dr. Mariya Y. Omelicheva is a Professor of Strategy at National War College. She holds PhD (2007) in Political Science from Purdue University and JD in International Law (2000) from Moscow National Law Academy. Dr. Omelicheva's research and teaching interests include international and Eurasian security, counterterrorism and human rights, democracy promotion in the post-Soviet territory, Russia's foreign and security policy, and terrorism/crime nexus in Eurasia. She has published on these subjects in  Terrorism and Political Violence ,  Europe-Asia Studies ,  International Journal of Human Rights ,  Central Asia Survey ,  Cambridge Review of International Relations , and other journals. She is the author of  Counterterrorism Policies in Central Asia  (Routledge 2011), which received an Outstanding Academic Title award by Choice,  Democracy in Central Asia: Competing Perspectives and Alternate Strategies  (University Press of Kentucky 2015), and  Webs of Corruption: Trafficking and Terrorism in Central Asia (Columbia University Press, 2019, with Lawrence Markowitz), and editor of  Nationalism and Identity Construction in Central Asia: Dimensions, Dynamics, and Directions  (Lexington 2015).

Lawrence P. Markowitz  is Professor of Political Science at Rowan University and Visiting Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He specializes in comparative politics with research and teaching interests in state building, authoritarianism, and political violence in post-Soviet Eurasia. In addition to a number of articles and book chapters, Markowitz is the author of two books: State Erosion: Unlootable Resources and Unruly Elites in Central Asia  (Cornell University Press, 2013) and (with Mariya Y. Omelicheva) Webs of Corruption:   Trafficking and Terrorism in Central Asia  (Columbia University Press, 2019).