Ruben Andersson is a professor of social anthropology at the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. His research has been concerned with borders, migration and security, and he is the author of No Go World (2019) and Illegality, Inc. (2014), winner of the 2015 BBC Ethnography Award.

David Keen is a professor of conflict studies at the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has researched civil wars, global wars and disasters. He is the author of The Benefits of Famine (1994) and Useful Enemies (2012), among other books, and winner of the Edgar Graham prize.