Misha Zelinsky is a leading authority on the rise of authoritarianism.

A Fulbright Scholar, economist, lawyer, and author — Misha has extensively covered Russia’s invasion from inside Ukraine as war correspondent for The Australian Financial Review. He is personally sanctioned by the Putin regime.

A Master’s graduate from the London School of Economics and Political Science, he is an expert associate at Australia’s National Security College and a director of Australian Super, a superannuation pension fund with roughly $300 billion under management.

Thanks to his time as a leader of the Australian Workers’ Union — Australia’s oldest blue-collar trade union — Misha has been a leading political figure with a reputation for expertise in supply chain sovereignty, national security, industrial policy, countering foreign interference, trade and energy security.

As a contributor to MSNBC, BBC, ABC, Misha’s work features in Australian and international print publications including the Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Telegraph, Foreign Policy, Times of London and Financial Times. His 5000-word profile from inside President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown won wide acclaim.

Misha is a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review and Foreign Policy Magazine, writing on the future of democracy, Australian domestic policy, national security and geopolitics. He is the host of popular foreign policy podcast ‘Diplomates – A Geopolitical Chinwag’.

Parker Novak is a Nonresident Fellow with the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub and Indo-Pacific Security Initiative. In this role, he focuses on Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Indo-Pacific geopolitics, and US foreign policy. He is also the Deputy Government Relations Director for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a bipartisan advocacy group that works across the United States to make development and diplomacy programs a keystone of American foreign policy and promote robust US global leadership.

Previously, Novak served as the International Republican Institute's Indonesia and Timor-Leste director, living in Jakarta and Dili as their senior in-country representative. To date, he has lived in six countries and worked on 18. His analysis and writing have been featured by several media outlets, including ABC Australia, Australian Financial Review, BBC World News, CNN, The Guardian, The Jakarta Post, Nikkei Asia, Sydney Morning Herald, and more.

He started his career as an aide to then-U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and working on political campaigns in the United States and Australia. He holds a master’s degree in political management and global politics from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from The Ohio State University. Additionally, he is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He resides in Washington, DC.