Aurel Croissant is Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University. His main research interests include comparative democratization, and authoritarianism, civil-military relations, terrorism and political violence, and the politics of the Asia-Pacific.

Markus Bayer is senior researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies. He is interested in (non)violent resistance, peaceful and constructive social and political transformations, and the role of ordinary people in extraordinary times as well as the security-development nexus, the effect of arms exports on developing countries, process(es) of militarization, civil-military relations, and democratization.

Nikitas Scheeder is PhD student at Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University. His research focusses on quantitative conflict research, especially the spatial dimension of conflicts, the influence of autonomy arrangements on escalation dynamics, and the link between militarisation and conflict.

Roya Izadi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island and Research Fellow at the Gender and the Security Sector Lab (GSS lab) at the Government Department at Cornell University. Roya is broadly interested in understanding the dynamics of political economy of security, civil-military relations, political violence, security sector reform, conflict, and post-conflict settlements as well as the role of gender in conflict and post-conflict environments, authoritarian settings, and UN peacekeeping missions.