David Aaronovitch is a writer, broadcaster and commentator on culture, international affairs, politics and the media. He is a regular columnist in The Times. A former television researcher, producer and programme editor, he has previously written for The Independent, The Guardian and The Observer, winning numerous accolades. He has presented a number of radio and television series and programmes on current affairs and historical topics. His first book, an account of a journey by kayak on the rivers and canals of England, Paddling to Jerusalem, was published in 2000 and won the Madoc Prize for travel writing. In 2009 he published Voodoo Histories, a book on the history and attraction of conspiracy theories. David also writes a blog about conspiracy theories. www.davidaaronovitch.com

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown came to this country in 1972 from Uganda. She completed her M.Phil. in literature at Oxford in 1975. She is a journalist who has written for The Guardian, Observer, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Evening Standard, The Mail and other newspapers and is now a regular columnist on The Independent and London’s Evening Standard. She is also a radio and television broadcaster and author of several books. Her most recent book is The Settler’s Cookbook: Tales of Love, Migration and Food. www.alibhai-brown.com

Following his appointment to the British government in 2007 as Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mark Malloch Brown was created a life peer. He had served as the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, from July 1999 to August 2005, and was appointed the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General in 2006. Prior to his appointment with UNDP, he worked at the World Bank, at the Sawyer-Miller Group, for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was the political correspondent of The Economist. He founded the Economist Development Report, a monthly report on the aid community and the political economy for development. Active in human rights and refugee issues, he formerly served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Refugees International in Washington, DC, and has served on the advisory boards of a number of non-profit organisations.

Dominic Streatfeild is the author of: Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography and Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. He is also a documentary maker specialising in military and security issues. His television work includes BBC2′s Exocet – detailing MI6 and the SAS’s clandestine war for the Falkland Islands and exposing the real reasons for the loss of HMS Sheffield – and the Discovery Channel’s series Age of Terror, examining the roots of political violence. Airing in over 100 countries, Age of Terror included interviews with members of 18 terrorist groups including FARC, the IRA, The Shining Path and Hezbollah. The series won a British Broadcast Award in 2003. His most recent book is A History of the World Since 9/11. www.dominicstreatfeild.com