Thomas H. Johnson is a research professor of the national security affairs department at the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, California) as well the director of the program for culture & conflict studies. For over three decades he has conducted research and published widely on Afghanistan and South Asia. His most recent book, Taliban Narratives: The Uses and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict was co-published by Oxford University Press and Hurst Publishers (London) in 2018.

Ludwig W. Adamec was professor at the University of Arizona and has served as the director of the Near Eastern Center for 10 years. He was widely known as a leading authority on Afghanistan and the author of 24 volumes and numerous articles and monographs, including the Historical Dictionary of Islam, Second Edition (Scarecrow, 2009) and Historical Dictionary of Afghan Wars, Revolutions, and Insurgencies (Scarecrow, 2005).