Odd Arne Westad is a Norwegian scholar of modern international and global history, with a specialization in the history of Eastern Asia since the 18th century. He is the author of The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, which won the Bancroft Prize, and Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750, which was named to two Top 100 book lists in 2012.
Westad joined the faculty at Yale after teaching at the London School of Economics and Harvard University. He is interested in the histories of modern empires and the global effects of imperialism, with a focus on China's transformation since the 1980s. Some of his work is concerned with historical parallels to the present. His most recent book (with Chen Jian) is The Great Transformation: China's Road from Revolution to Reform (2024), and his new book, The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings from History, will be published in March 2026.

Nicholas Burns is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the Founder and Faculty Chair of the Future of Diplomacy Project and a Faculty Affiliate at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Burns worked in the United States government for over three decades, serving six presidents and nine secretaries of state. During his tenure as the U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China from 2021 to 2025, Burns helped to stabilise U.S.-China relations amid tensions arising from military, technology and economic competition and human rights issues.