Sam Downes is a Masters of Public Administration student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Previously, he worked in the Cabinet Office amongst other positions in and around British government over the last six years. His research interests include the role of public administration in citizen participation, public sector accountability, comparative public administration and how political theory applies to public administration.

Brian Charles is a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore. He recently graduated from NUS with a Master of Social Sciences in November 2020. His M.A. thesis was a genealogical analysis of the term ‘populism’ as a concept in the academic literature spanning 1890 to 2020. His research interests include political theory, intellectual history, history of ideas, philosophy, sociology of knowledge and political psychology.

Assel Mussagulova is a PhD student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore pursuing a public policy and global affairs track. Her research focus is on human resource management and organizational behavior in the public sector, bureaucratic institutions, especially in the post-communist context. Previously, Assel worked as a civil servant in the area of HR management in Kazakhstan, and as a research associate at the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) in Singapore.

Isaac graduated with a Masters in Asian Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in 2020, and has a Bachelor's in Political Science from the National University of Singapore. His research interests lie in the state-society relations of Southeast Asian countries, the politics of authoritarian regimes, and populism. He currently works as a security specialist at a global security assistance provider.

Soyoung is a PhD student at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Her current research interests are Japanese security policy and strategic culture.

Barbora Valockova is a PhD candidate in the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme of the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her research focuses on international political economy, international relations, ASEAN and East Asia. Before pursuing her PhD, she worked as an Asia-Pacific infrastructure analyst and a trainee at the European Commission.

Pradeep is a Masters candidate in the Political Science Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests include political psychology, securitization, social theory, and international relations. Currently, he is developing a study that examines how cognitive biases are involved in the formation of public perceptions of security.

Bailey Marsheck is a graduate student at the Yenching Academy of Peking University, where he is currently pursuing an M.A. in China Studies (Politics and International Relations). His research interests lie at the intersection of IR and public opinion, primarily focusing on the U.S.-China relationship. He previous graduated with a B.A. in International Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Say Jye is an aspiring academic planning to work at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and history. He is presently completing an MSc in Asian Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He graduated with Highest Distinction from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in January 2020, majoring in Political Science with a minor in History.