Kenneth Adelman is the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Freedom House. He is the co-author of Shakespeare in Charge: The Bard's Guide to Leading and Succeeding on the Business Stage. As an executive trainer and speaker, Mr. Adelman uses Shakespeare to teach leadership, ethics, diversity, and crisis management. Mr. Adelman is an Adjunct Professor of National Security Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and an Adjunct Professor of Shakespeare at George Washington University. Since 1988, Mr. Adelman has been the National Editor of and a columnist for Washingtonian magazine. From 1987 to 1997, he served as a private consultant on international and governmental issues. Mr. Adelman was the Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1983 to 1987, the Deputy U.S. Representative to the United Nations from 1981 to 1983, and the Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977.

Mahnaz Afkhami is the Founder and President of Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace in Bethesda, Maryland. She is the former Minister of State for Women's Affairs in Iran. Ms. Afkhami is also the Executive Director of the Foundation for Iranian Studies and serves on advisory boards for a number of national and international organizations. A leading advocate of women's rights, she was instrumental in the establishment of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. She has written and lectured extensively on issues of women and human rights, civil society, and democracy. Her most recent publication is Safe and Secure: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Muslim Societies (1998).

José Conde Rodrigues is a Cabinet Member in the Socialist International and serves as the Vice President of the Socialist International Committee on Administration and Finance. He served as the Mayor of Cantaxo, Portugal, from January 1994 to May 2000. He left this position to become the Manager of the Cultural Operations Program. He is a frequent columnist for major Lisbon newspapers, and he holds post-graduate degrees in law and business.

Raúl Alfonsín was the President of Argentina from 1983 to 1989. In that capacity, he participated in Argentina's democratic transition, following decades of authoritarian rule. He was an activist in the Unión Cívica Radical and was elected a deputy in 1963 and 1973. In 1983, at the end of the military dictatorship, Mr. Alfonsín won the presidential elections against the Peronistas with a program of reviving civic life and the supremacy of civil power over military power.

Maria Soledad Alvea Valenzuela is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile. She has held numerous political party and governmental positions. Most recently, she was the executive director of President Lagos's campaign in December 2000. In the previous government, she served as the Minister of Justice from 1994 to 1999. She is a leader on women's issues, having served as the Minister-Director of the National Service Organization for Women in Chile from 1991 to 1994 as well as in a number of high-level positions in the Organization of American States (OAS). Before entering politics as a member of the Christian Democratic Party, she practiced law and taught at the university. In 1999 she was named the Woman of the Century by the magazine Mujer del Dairio La Tercera.

Kofi Annan of Ghana is the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. The first Secretary-General to be elected from the ranks of United Nations staff, he began his term on January 1,1997. As Secretary-General Mr. Annan has stressed the following goals: 1) to revitalize the United Nations through a comprehensive program of reform; 2) to strengthen the Organization's traditional work for peace and development; 3) to encourage and advocate human rights, the rule of law and the universal values of equality, tolerance and human dignity found in the United Nations Charter; and 4) to restore public confidence in the Organization by, in his words, "bringing the United Nations closer to the people."

Genaro Arriagada was appointed Ambassador of Chile to the United States in 1998. He resigned in 1999 to head the presidential campaign of Ricardo Lagos. Mr. Arriagada was the Ambassador-at-large and Special Envoy of the President of Chile to the Second Summit of the Americas, which took place in Santiago in April 1998. He served as the National Director of the "NO" campaign which defeated General Pinochet in the plebiscite of October 1988 and as the chief of the presidential campaign of Eduardo Frei in 1993. Between 1979 and 1993, Mr. Arriagada was the Chairman of the Board of Radio Cooperativa. He has observed elections in many countries in Central and South America. In 1988 he received the Averell Harriman Democracy Award. Mr. Arriagada writes books, articles, and columns on political, social, and economic issues.

Benjamin Barber is the Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University. He is a consultant to political and civic leaders in the United States and Europe and to many institutions, including the White House Millennial Committee, the Corporation for National Service, the United States Information Agency, UNESCO, the European Parliament, the Swedish Parliamentary Commission on Democracy, and Mission 2000, the French Millennial Commission. Dr. Barber was the founding editor and editor-in-chief of Political Theory. He writes frequently for Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, Le Nouvel Observateur, and other publications. He is the author of fifteen books, including Jihad vs. McWorld (1995) and the forthcoming Speak Truth to Power: Intellectuals in the Clinton White House.

Henryka Bochniarz is the President of the Management Board of NICOM Consulting Ltd. In this capacity, she is directly involved in the implementation of the privatization and restructuring process of the Polish economy and business sector. An economist by training, Ms. Bochniarz was the Minister for Trade and Industry in the government of J.K. Bielecki and the founder and first President of the Association of Economic Consultants in Poland. From 1996 to 1999, she was the President of the Polish Business Roundtable. Since 1999 she has been the President of the Polish Confederation of Private Employers. Ms. Bochniarz was a Fulbright scholar. She lectures at the University of Minnesota in the United States.

John Bolton is the Senior Vice President of the American Enterprise Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Law at George Mason University. In the Bush administration, he was the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. Mr. Bolton served as General Counsel and the Assistant Administrator for Program and Policy Coordination at the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1981 to 1983; the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs from 1985 to 1988; and the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division at the Department of Justice from 1988 to 1989. Mr. Bolton is the author of numerous articles on U.S. foreign policy, international relations, and legal policy.

Jerzy Karol Buzek is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. As an active member of the Solidarity movement, he helped organize the union's structures and activities and chaired its first, fourth, fifth, and sixth National Congresses. He sat on the Solidarity Election Action (AWS) team of experts and was a co-author of the economic chapter of the AWS program. A chemical engineer by training, Mr. Buzek has written many articles and monographs on mathematical modeling, desulphurization of exhaust gases, and optimization of processes.

Judy Cavanaugh is the Deputy Minister responsible for Government Priorities in the Office of the Premier, British Colombia, Canada. Since 1988 she has held a number of portfolios, including Deputy Minister for Women's Equality, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat, Assistant Deputy Minister for Human Resources, and Executive Director for Cabinet Operations. Ms. Cavanaugh recently completed consultations with federal, regional, and local offices and service providers in England on social, health, and women's issues. In 1998 she worked with the Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape, South Africa on governance issues. She has also worked in Australia and Mozambique.

Kavi Chongkittavorn is the Executive Editor of the Bangkok-based, English newspaper The Nation. He has served as the newspaper's correspondent, foreign news editor, editorial writer, and bureau chief in Phonm Penh ) and Vietnam ). He also has served in the Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretariat as a special assistant to the Secretary General. Mr. Chongkittavorn has been a Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, and the Chairman of the Southeast Asia Press Alliance. He was awarded the Human Rights Journalist of the Year award in 1998 by Amnesty International, Thailand.

Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz was the Prime Minister of Poland from 1996 to 1997. He has been a member of the Polish parliament since 1989. In this capacity he has served as a member of the Political, Human Rights, and Foreign Committees and the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Minorities. He was the Chairman of the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and a member of the Interparliamentary Union. From 1995 to 1996 he was the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and from 1993 to 1995 he held the positions of Deputy Prime Minister, Minster of Justice, and Attorney General.

Antonio Di Pietro is a member of the Italian Senate, a lecturer at the Libero Istituto Universitario Carlo Cattaneo of Castellanza (VA), and a member of the European Parliament. Mr. Di Pietro led the "mani pulite" (clean hands) anticorruption inquiry that prosecuted hundreds of Italian politicians between 1991 and 1995.

Peter Eigen is the Chairman of Transparency International. He has worked in economic development for 25 years, primarily as a World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America. The Ford Foundation sponsored Dr. Eigen to provide legal and technical assistance to the governments of Botswana and Namibia. He has also taught law at the University of Frankfurt and Georgetown University. From 1988 to 1991 he was the Director of the World Bank's Regional Mission for Eastern Africa.

Francis Fukuyama is the Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. Mr. Fukuyama has worked as a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation and served as the Deputy Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State. He is the author of a number of influential books, including The End of History and the Last Man, Trust: Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, and, most recently, The Great Disruption.

Aaron Gana is the Executive Director of the African Centre for Democratic Governance, a non-profit, nongovernmental organization dedicated to the promotion of democracy in Nigeria. Mr. Gana has taught political science at several universities, including Ahmadu Bello University, the City University of New York, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Jos, where he became Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences before retiring in 1996. He has also held the position of President of the Nigerian Political Science Association and President of the Social Science Academy of Nigeria.

Bronislaw Geremek has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland since 1997. He has been a Deputy of the Sejm since 1989 and has chaired numerous parliamentary groups, including the Foreign Affairs and Constitutional committees. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Geremek was an active opposition member. As such, he was as a co-founder and lecturer at the Towarzystwo Kursów Naukowych, an illegal opposition educational organization; an advisor to the Inter-Factory Strike Committee of Solidarity; and a delegate to the Gdansk-Oliwa National Convention of Solidarity. He was detained under martial law from 1981 to 1982, and from 1983 to 1990 continued to work with Solidarity as an advisor to Lech Walesa and a member of several committees. Mr. Geremek has taught at Warsaw University, the Sorbonne, and the Collège de France. He is the author of several books on political history, democracy, and medieval Polish and French history and culture. He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Distinguished Leaders Award from the University of California at Los Angeles, the European Civic Prize, and the Prix Politique Internationale from the Sorbonne.

Carl Gershman has been the President of the National Endowment for Democracy since 1984. Under his leadership, the NED created the quarterly Journal for Democracy in 1990 and launched the International Forum for Democratic Studies in 1994. Prior to his appointment to the NED, Mr. Gershman held the position of Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nations. He was a Resident Scholar at Freedom House from 1980 to 1981 and the Executive Director of Social Democrats, USA, from 1974 to 1980. Mr. Gershman has lectured extensively and written articles on foreign policy issues for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and other publications.

Nasser Hadian is a Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, Tehran University. He served as the Director of Graduate Studies from 1995 to 1999. He appears frequently on television and radio news programs and has been interviewed by many international newspapers and magazines. Mr. Hadian speaks throughout the United States on Iranian politics, Islam, and civil society in Iran.

Mary Harney is the first woman in Ireland to lead her political party in an election campaign and into negotiations to form a government. She is the leader of the Progressive Democrats Party and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment in the current Irish government. Elected to the Dáil Eirean in 1977, she co-founded the Progressive Democrats in 1979-1991. From 1989 to 1991 she was the Deputy Leader and Spokesperson on Justice, Equality, and Law Reform of the Progressive Democrats. She was elected leader of the party in 1993.

Mara Hernandez Estrada is the Coordinator of Mexicans Abroad for the Campaign Committee of Vicente Fox, presidential candidate for the Green Party-National Action Party (PAN) coalition in Mexico. Previously Ms. Estrada headed the Economics Department of the parliamentary group of PAN. She was a researcher and an analyst on rural development and agriculture at PAN from 1997 to 1998. Ms. Hernandez has appeared on television as a political commentator and has written several articles for Etcetera magazine.

Serhiy Holovaty is the President of the Ukrainian Legal Foundation in Kiev, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, and a member of the European Commmission for Democracy Through Law of the Council of Europe. Mr. Holovaty recently joined the World Bank External Advisory Board on Governance and Anticorruption in the Europe and Central Asia Region. He was the Minister of Justice of Ukraine from 1995 to 1997. Between 1990 and 1996 he was the President of the Association of Ukrainian Lawyers, President of the World Congress of Ukrainian Lawyers, and a member of the Working Group of the Constitutional Commission of the Ukrainian Parliament. From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Holovaty chaired the Cabinet of Ministers Working Group on the draft of a new Ukrainian Civil Code. He also chaired the working group that drafted the National Anti-Corruption Program, which was approved by presidential decree in 1997. Mr. Holovaty has been a lecturer in International Law and is the author of numerous publications devoted to international and constitutional law.

Bi-Khim Hsiao is the Director of the Department of International Affairs for the new Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of Chen Shui-Bian in Taiwan. She has worked for the DPP since completing her studies in the United States.

Adrian Karatnycky is the President of Freedom House, a co-sponsor of the World Forum on Democracy, and serves as the coordinator of the Annual Survey of Freedom. Mr. Karatnycky served as an Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO, the American trade union federation, with responsibility for international affairs issues. He has co-authored three books on Soviet and post-Soviet affairs and contributes to Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Janos Kis is a Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at the Central European University in Hungary. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a member of the Hungarian democratic opposition, editor of the underground political magazine Beszelo, and the founder and first president of the Alliance of Free Democrats. He returned to academia in 1991 and has written several books and numerous articles and essays on philosophy and politics.

Alpha Oumar Konare was elected the president of Mali in April 1992 in his country's firstand free, multiparty elections. He was re-elected in 1997. In the 1970s Mr. Konare served as the Minister of Youth, Sports, and Culture in the government of President Moussa Traore. He became disenchanted with the Traore government, however, and returned to academia, where he became a leader of the pro-democracy movement that overthrew Traore and established a new, democratic constitution. Mr. Konare holds a Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Warsaw in Poland.

Sergei Kovalyov is a deputy in the State Duma of the Russian Federation; a member of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; the President of the Institute of Human Rights; and the co-President of Memorial, a nongovernmental organization that systematically documents the human rights violations of the former Communist regime. From 1974 to 1981 Mr. Kovalyov was in prison for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." He has been active in the human rights movement since the late 1960s. A biophysicist by training, Mr. Kovalyov is the author of more than sixty published works.

Marcin Krol is a distinguished and widely regarded scholar of Intellectual History. His particular areas of interest include Polish political philosophy and political philosophy in general. He is the Dean of the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw and a professor and member of the board of directors at the Graduate School for Social Research in Warsaw. In the autumn of 1994 he held the post of Distinguished Visiting Professor of Democratization at Georgetown University. Mr. Krol has been a visiting Professor of History at several universities throughout his career. He currently serves as editor of Res Publica, an independent intellectual monthly, and is a board member of the Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny." Mr. Krol is preparing a book on the idea of human nature in the tradition of liberal thought and continues to be interested in the problem of intellectuals and political elites in the period of transition from totalitarianism to democracy.

Bolívar Lamounier is a member of the Board of the Inter American Dialogue, a Washington-based organization dedicated to issues of U.S.-Latin American relations. He is also a co-founder and senior member of the São Paulo Institute for Economic and Political Studies-a private, nonprofit research organization in Brazil-and a partner and director of MCM Consultores Associados. In 1985 he was appointed by then-President José Sarney to the constitutional drafting commission. From 1992 to 1993 he coordinated a commission established by the Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo to advise the Chilean Congress on constitutional reform. From 1993 to 1998 he was the Chairman of the board of directors of the Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Campinas, São Paulo. Mr. Lamounier has taught political science at the University of São Paulo and at the Catholic University of São Paulo. He writes extensively on Brazilian comparative politics.

Irena Lasota is the President and Director of Programs of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe (IDEE). The Institute, in existence for more than 15 years, is active in countries marked by Communist rule, including Cuba, the Balkans, the Caucasian republics, and Mongolia. IDEE supports democratic, independent, pluralistic movements, and individuals through a variety of programs, the largest being the Centers for Pluralism. Early in the year 2000, IDEE helped to create the American Committee for Chechnya (ACC), which attempts to garner American support for an end to the second brutal, genocidal war being raged by the Russian Federation against the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

Bette Bao Lord, a best-selling novelist and writer, has been the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Freedom House since 1993. Ms. Lord is a presidential appointee to the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Marti, and Radio Free Asia. She also serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, WNET, Freedom Forum, the Campaign for Tibet, and the National Portrait Gallery. She is the recipient of the White House Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, the United States Information Agency Award for Outstanding Contributions, and seven honorary degrees.

Ralph Lysyshyn is the President of the Forum of Federations in Ottawa, Canada. He served as the Executive Director, Committee for a Forum of Federations, from 1998 to 1999; the Director-General of International Security at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade from 1994 to 1998; Deputy Permanent Representative, Canadian Delegation to NATO, from 1990 to 1994; and Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, from 1986 to 1990. Mr. Lysyshyn's writing has appeared in NATO Review and Canadian Foreign Policy. He co-authored "The Ottawa Process and the International Movement to Ban Anti-Personnel Mines" in To Walk Without Fear: The Global Campaign to Ban Antipersonnel Landmines (1998).

Tadeusz Mazowiecki is a Deputy in the Polish Sejm. From 1992 to 1995 he served as a Special Envoy to the United Nations' Human Rights Commission in the former Yugoslavia. He joined Solidarity (Solidarnosc) in 1980 and headed the Inter-factory Strike Committee in Gdansk. He was interned during Martial Law (1981-82); he participated in, and was one of the initiators, of the Round-Table Talks; and he coordinated the work of opposition groups during negotiations. Mr. Mazowiecki was a member of the Citizens' Committee under Lech Walesa. He was elected Poland's first Premier in 1989 and was one of the founders and leaders of the Democratic Union (Unia Demokratyczna), which later became the Freedom Union (Unia Wolnosci). He is a member of the Polish PEN Club. Mr. Mazowiecki has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Leuwen (Belgium), Genui (Italy), Geissen (Germany) and Poitiers (France). He is a knight of the Order of the White Eagle. Mr. Mazowiecki is the author of several works concerned with ethics and politics.

Thomas Melia is the Vice President for Programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). He is responsible for the development of NDI's global strategy and the assessment of programming impact. From 1993 to 1996 he directed the Institute's programs in the Middle East. As a Program Director from 1988 to 1992, he played a major role in the development of NDI's timely programs to aid political parties and to strengthen electoral systems in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Albania. Mr. Melia has also participated in, or directed, programs in south Asia, the Baltic states, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. From 1986 to October 1988 Mr. Melia was the Associate Director of the Free Trade Union Institute of the AFL-CIO, the American trade union federation. From 1980 to 1986 he was the Legislative Assistant for Foreign Policy to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York.

Adam Michnik, a historian and prominent Solidarity activist during the 1980s, is the Editor-in-Chief of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. Mr. Michnik spent six years in Polish prisons for activities opposing the Communist regime. In 1989, he was a member of the Round Table Talks, and from 1989 to 1991 he served as a member of Poland's first non-Communist parliament. Mr. Michnik is the author of several books, including Chances of Polish Democracy (1984), Such Other Times: Concerning Compromise (1985), and La Deuxieme Revolution (1990). His articles have appeared in Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais, The New York Review of Books, and other publications. Mr. Michnik has been the recipient of numerous awards internationally, including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (1986), the European Journalists' Association Award (1995), the French Pen Club Freedom Award (1982), and the OSCE Prize on Journalism and Democracy (1996).

Aryeh Neier is the President of theSociety Institute. He was the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch from 1981 to 1993. Prior to his position at Human Rights Watch, he spent fifteen years with the American Civil Liberties Union, including eight as National Director. Mr. Neier was an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University from 1978 to 1991 and has lectured at many of America's leading universities. He has written numerous articles and columns for The Nation, The New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and other publications, in addition to making frequent television appearances. Mr. Neier is the author of five books, the most recent of which is War Crimes (1998).

Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck is the Minister for Finance, Budget and External Relations in Belgium, as well as the President of the Liberal International. She began her political career as press attaché to the Minister of Justice from 1973 to 1975 and Deputy Chef de Cabinet of the Governor of Brabant from 1975 to 1981. In 1980, she joined the Party for Freedom and Progress (Flemish Liberal Party). In 1981, Ms. Neyts-Uyttebroeck was elected a Member of Parliament and was Secretary of State for Brussels until 1985. She served as the President of the Flemish Liberal Party from 1985 until 1989 and was a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999. She was elected President of the Liberal International in 1999.

Ghia Nodia is the Chairman of the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development, an independent think tank in Tblisi, Georgia. He is also a Professor of Sociology at Tblisi State University. Mr. Nodia's primary areas of research are regional security, state building, democratization in the Caucasus, and the theory of nationalism and its fate in the post-Cold War context.

Eduardo Nolla is a Professor of Political Philosophy and Vice Rector at the Universidad San Pablo-CEU in Spain. He also taught for many years at Yale University. He is a trustee of the Fundación Cánovas del Castillo and the founder of the Comisión Española de Apoyo a la Democracia, a multipartisan organization that promotes democracy and development throughout the world.

Andrzej Olechowski was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland from 1993 to 1995 and the Minister of Finance in 1992. His previous positions include Chairman of Bank Handlowy w Warszawie S.A. and 1998-2000), Chairman of Central Europe Trust Poland ), Economic Advisor to President Lech Walesa , 1995), Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, and Poland's chief negotiator of the Association Treaty with the European Union and the Central European Free Trade Agreement ). Mr. Olechowski has also served as an economist at the World Bank and as the Economic Affairs Officer at UNCTAD, Geneva ). He serves on the boards of public policy initiatives and charitable and educational foundations.

Uwe Optenhögel is the Director of the Division for International Dialogue of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Bonn, Germany. Prior to this position, he was Managing Director of an international language school in Lisbon and the Representative of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in São Paulo, Brazil.

Amos Oz is an Israeli writer of both fiction and nonfiction. His work explores conflicts and tensions in contemporary Israeli society and, more broadly, the constraints of ideology, geographic boundaries, and historical traditions. A master of modern Hebrew prose, Oz paints an eloquent and often pessimistic picture of Israeli and Palestinian society in the years leading up to the 1994 peace accord between the two groups. Among his most successful works are Where the Jackals Howl and Other Stories (1965), Touch the Water, Touch the Wind (1973), Black Box (1987), and The Third Space (1991).

Orlando Patterson is the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Formerly a Special Advisor to Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica during the 1970s, Mr. Patterson is the author of eight books and several book-length government reports on urban poverty. His book Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study, which examined slavery as a worldwide institution, won the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award of the American Sociological Association in 1983. He explored the problems of ethnicity and ethnic revivalism in his 1977 book Ethnic Chauvinism: The Reactionary Impulse. His book Freedom in the Making of Western Culture, the first of a two-volume historical sociology of freedom, won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 1991. He is presently completing the second volume of Freedom. In addition, Mr. Patterson has published three novels, and his op-eds and longer articles frequently appear in such publications as The New York Times and The New Republic. He is also a Member of the Board of Trustees of Freedom House.

Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, a Senior Research Fellow in Politics at Brunel University in London, is a British political scientist who has been active in the promotion of democracy and human rights at an academic and a practical level. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems and a member of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy. From 1992 to 1998 he was the founder governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. A specialist on campaign finance, he is the Vice Chairman of the International Political Science Association's research committee on political finance and political corruption. Since 1998 he has advised governments, constitutional commissions, and electoral authorities in Columbia, Mauritius, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Previously he was a consultant on political aid to the Policy Planning Staff of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

Xiao Qiang has been the Executive Director of Human Rights in China since 1991. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of the Washington-based Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars. Mr. Qiang has lectured in over 30 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Africa on the promotion of human rights in China. He is a regular speaker on behalf of Chinese human rights at meetings of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He has testified before the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress on numerous occasions. Mr. Qiang is a founding member and North American representative of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights NGO Facilitating Team and is on the steering committee of the World Conference for Democracy. He has appeared in numerous Chinese and international media, including CNN, BBC, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The New York Times, Die Zeit, and Le Monde. He is a weekly commentator on Radio Free Asia.

Jose Ramos-Horta is the Vice President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance. A former journalist, Mr. Ramos-Horta worked for print and broadcast media in his native country, East Timor, but left the country days before it was invaded by Indonesia in 1975. He spent 24 years in exile, lobbying internationally for the freedom of East Timor. In 1990, he founded and directed the Diplomacy Training Program at the Law School, University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia. He also works closely with fellow Nobel Laureate Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and others on an international code of conduct on arms transfers. In 1996, Mr. Ramos-Horta and his compatriot, Bishop Carlos Belo, were co-recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Ramos-Horta is the author of FUNU: The Unfinished Saga of East Timor (1987) and Timor Leste: Amanhã em Dili, Publicações Dom Quixote (1994).

José Conde Rodrigues is a Cabinet Member in the Socialist International and serves as the Vice President of the Socialist International Committee on Administration and Finance. He served as the Mayor of Cantaxo, Portugal, from January 1994 to May 2000. He left this position to become the Manager of the Cultural Operations Program. He is a frequent columnist for major Lisbon newspapers, and he holds post graduate degrees in law and business.

Roland Rich became inaugural director of the Centre for Democratic Institutions in Canberra, Australia, in 1998. Prior to this position, he gained a wealth of experience in the Australian diplomatic service. He has served on diplomatic postings in the Philippines, Burma, and France, and was Australian Ambassador to Laos. Within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Rich has served as a legal advisor and as the Assistant Secretary of the International Organizations Branch.

Michel Rocard was the Prime Minister of France from 1988 to 1991. In 1994, he was elected to the European Parliament, where he currently serves as the Chairman of the Committee of Employment and Social Affairs. Mr. Rocard has also held the posts of Mayor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in the Department of Yvelines ) and Socialist Senator for Yvelines ). His published works include Parler vrai (1978), A l'épreuve des faits (1986), Un pays comme le nôtre (1989), and L'Art de la Paix (1997).

José Conde Rodrigues is a Cabinet Member in the Socialist International and serves as the Vice President of the Socialist International Committee on Administration and Finance. He served as the Mayor of Cantaxo, Portugal, from January 1994 to May 2000. He left this position to become the Manager of the Cultural Operational Program. A frequent columnist in major Lisbon newspapers, he holds post-graduate degrees in law and business.

Bengt Säve-Söderbergh is the Secretary General of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), a position he has held since 1995. He worked in the Swedish International Development Authority from 1967 to 1970, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1970 to 1976, and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation from 1976 to 1978. From 1978 to 1985, Mr. Säve-Söderbergh headed the International Centre of the Swedish Labour Movement, later renamed the Olof Palme International Centre. He then became Deputy Minister for International Development Co-operation at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In 1991, he was appointed Ambassador at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1992 to 1995 he led a feasibility commission that resulted in the founding of IDEA. Mr. Säve-Söderbergh has been awarded the Order of Merit by Lech Walesa for his contributions to the struggle for freedom in Poland and the Order of Merit by the Parliament of Mozambique for his work to combat colonialism and apartheid.

Aleksander Smolar is the President of the Stefan Batory Foundation. He is also a member of the board of theSociety Institute and a member of the National Council of the Freedom Union Party. As a political émigré in France from 1971 to 1989, he served as the Director of the political quarterly Aneks. From 1990 to 1993, he served as an advisor to Prime Ministers Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Hanna Suchocka. Mr. Smolar also has many years of teaching experience, including positions at Warsaw University and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. He has written two books, Le Grande Secousse: Europe de l'Est 1989-1990 and Globalization, Power, and Democracy (forthcoming). His articles on politics in Communist and post-Communist Europe have appeared in many European and American professional journals. Mr. Smolar is also a frequent commentator for international radio and television on foreign policy and internal dynamics in Central Europe.

George Soros is the Chairman of Soros Fund Management LCC, a private investment management firm. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Mr. Soros emigrated in 1947 to London and in 1956 to the United States, where he amassed a large fortune through his investment activities. He established theSociety Fund in New York in 1979 and his first Eastern European foundation in Hungary in 1984. He now funds a network of foundations operating in 31 countries to build and maintainsociety institutions and infrastructure. In addition to his articles on political and economic changes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Mr. Soros is the author of several books, includingng the Soviet System (1990), Underwriting Democracy (1991), and The Crisis of Global Capitalism (1998).

Veton Surroi is the Publisher of the major newspaper in Kosovo Koha Ditore. From 1982 to 1990 he worked as a journalist for Rilindja. In 1989, Mr. Surroi founded the Pristina chapter of the Association for Yugoslav Democratic Initiative and the first independent trade union of construction workers. He founded the Koha news magazine in 1990 and was the President of the second largest Kosovar political party, the Parliamentary Party, from 1991-1992. Mr. Surroi was a member of the Kosovar teams involved in negotiations with Belgrade authorities and afterwards participated in the Rambouillet and Paris negotiations.

Alejandro Toledo is the President of the Partido Peru Posible. He was the party's presidential candidate in the first round of Peru's elections. Despite broad voter support, he resigned from participation in the second-round runoff amid allegations of widespread fraud and irregularities that occurred before, during, and after the first round. He was born in Cavana, Ancash region, in Peru to a poor family with sixteen children. He is an economist and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has worked for several international organizations, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Program. He has been a professor and researcher at several Peruvian and American institutions, including Harvard University's Institute of International Development.

Fred van Leeuwen is the General Secretary of Education International and a Member of the Executive Board of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. A teacher by training, Mr. Van Leeuwen was elected the General Secretary of the International Federation of Free Teachers' Unions (IFFTU) in 1981 and held this post until the merger of the IFFTU with the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP) in 1993. He was among the initiators of the talks between IFFTU and WCOTP that led to the establishment of Education International. Mr. Van Leeuwen serves on the Executive Board of the Dutch development cooperation agency NOVIB.

Wan Aziza binti Wan Ismail, a Member of the Malaysian parliament, is the president of Malaysia's opposition Parti Keadilan Nasional (the National Justice Party), which was created in April 1999. She is the wife of Anwar Ibrahim, the imprisoned former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Jusuf Wanandi is a Member of the Board of Directors and a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is also the Chairman of the Indonesian National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (INCPEC), a Co-Chair and Member of the Steering Committee of the Council for Security and Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Indonesia, and a Member of the Standing Committee of PECC. In addition, Mr. Wanandi is the President Director of the publishing company of The Jakarta Post, a daily newspaper. He has served as the Secretary of the Indonesian Supreme Advisory Council, the Secretary General of the National Education Council, and as a four-term representative in the People's Consultative Assembly. He was active in the Golkar Party between 1979 and 1998. A lawyer by training, Mr. Wanandi has been an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Indonesia and has written extensively for international magazines and newspapers.

Wei Jingsheng is the President of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition and a Fellow at Columbia University in New York. In the late 1970s, his writings advocating democracy and modernization in China earned him eighteen years in Chinese prisons for "counterrevolutionary activities." Upon his release in 1997, he was sent to the United States. His letters to his family and to Communist leaders, written while he was in prison, were published prior to his release in a volume entitled The Courage to Stand Alone. He received the Olof Palme Memorial Prize in 1994, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award in 1996, and the National Endowment for Democracy Award in 1997. Mr. Wei has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Werner Weidenfeld is a Member of the Board of the Bertelsmann Foundation. He has taught international issues, particularly transatlantic relations and European integration, at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich since 1995. From 1975 to 1995 he was a Professor of Political Science at the University of Mainz, and from 1986 to 1988 he was an Associate Professor at the Sorbonne, Paris. Professor Weidenfeld has also served as an advisor to the German government, most recently as the Coordinator of German-American Cooperation. He is the Director of the Center for Applied Policy Research at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich.

Yogendra Yadav is the Director of the Institute for Comparative Democracy, a research program of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi. Previously, Mr. Yadav taught political science at Panjab University, Chandigarh. He has written a series of academic papers on democratic politics and socialist discourse in modern India. He also conducts live, nationwide television broadcasts on vote-counting during major elections in India. He writes regularly in Hindi and is on the editorial board of the political magazine Samayik Varta.

Fareed Zakaria is the Managing Editor of Foreign Affairs and a Contributing Editor of Newsweek, where he writes a column on international affairs. Previously, Mr. Zakaria ran the Project on the Changing Security Environment at Harvard University, where he also taught international politics and economics. He has also been an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and at Case Western University. Mr. Zakaria writes frequently for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times Literary Supplement, the new webzines, Slate and Intellectual Capital, and other publications. He is a co-editor of The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (1998) and the author of From Wealth To Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role (1998). He is writing a book on democracy in the twenty-first century.

Michael Zantovsky is a Member of the Czech Senate and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Security. From 1992 to 1996 he was the Czech Ambassador to the United States and, prior to that, was the Press Secretary and Spokesman for President Vaclav Havel. In November 1989, Mr. Zantovsky became a founding member of the Civic Forum, the umbrella organization that coordinated the overthrow of the communist regime. He also was a founding member of the Czech chapter of P.E.N., the international organization of writers and translators that was banned in Czechoslovakia during the communist era, and a contributor to the samizdat press. Mr. Zantovsky has translated into Czech more than thirty works of contemporary English and American fiction, poetry, and drama, including works by Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Nadine Gordimer.