Brendan Simms is Professor of the History of European International Relations and Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge. He is also founder and President of the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank devoted to the spread of democracy and human rights worldwide, and President of the Munich-based start-up think tank Project for Democratic Union, which seeks to establish a single Eurozone state on the lines of the Anglo-American unions. His publications, which have been translated into many languages, European and non-European, include Europe, the struggle for supremacy, 1453 to the present day (Penguin Press, 2013), Britain’s Europe. A thousand years of conflict and cooperation (Penguin Press, 2016) and (with Benjamin Zeeb) Europa am Abgrund. Pladoyer fuer die Vereinigten Staaten von Europe (C.H. Beck, 2016). His most recent book is Hitler. Only the world was enough (Penguin Press, 2019). His current concern is how to establish a new order for the continent after Brexit which recognises both Britain’s power and her interest in the success of the European integration project.

S. M. Amadae is Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and a tenured political scientist at the University of Helsinki. Her work focuses on global catastrophic risks, including nuclear deterrence, artificial intelligence, and climate-related threats. She is the author of Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy and Prisoners of Reason and has led international research projects on technology, security, and global governance.  

Biography: Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

John Raine is currently the Senior Adviser on Geopolitical Due Diligence at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (IISS). He is also Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of Lincoln and Chair of the UK's Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, a Trustee of the HALO Trust and a number of other charities supporting the UK's Armed Forces and Agencies.    

John was a career British diplomat from 1984 to 2017 serving in Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan including two tours in support of UK and US Armed Forces. He has also served as an advisor and Non Executive Director of HSBC (Middle East) and works extensively with financial and other corporates on geopolitical risk.

An undergraduate at Jesus College from 1981 to 1984, studying Classics, John has recently returned to Cambridge to Selwyn College, where his wife, Suzanne, is Master.

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP is the Labour Member of Parliament for Slough. First elected in 2017, Tan became the first ever turbaned Sikh in any European Parliament. Before entering Parliament, Tan worked in construction and was also elected as a councillor and subsequently mayor in Gravesham.  

Kwasi Kwarteng has held several senior positions in UK government, most recently serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer from September 2022 to October 2022. Prior to this, he was Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and has also served as Minister of State at BEIS and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union.

Kwasi was elected as Member of Parliament for Spelthorne in 2010. He left Parliament in 2024, having announced his resignation in February of that year. During his time as a backbencher he served on a number of key Parliamentary committees, including the Transport, Work and Pensions, and Public Accounts Committees. Earlier in his career, he worked as a financial analyst in the private sector.

As an author, Kwasi has published Ghosts of Empire (2011), War and Gold (2014) and Thatcher's Trial (2015), among other books. 

He holds a degree in Classics and History from Trinity College, Cambridge, attended Harvard University on a Kennedy Scholarship, and completed a PhD in Economic History at the University of Cambridge.