The Lord Hannay of Chiswick GCMG

Diplomat

United Kingdom

The Lord Hannay of Chiswick GCMG is a life peer in the House of Lords. An experienced British diplomat, he served for five years as ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations and as chair of the United Nations Association U.K. from 2006 to 2011. Most recently, Hannay has taken on roles as special representative for Cyprus and as a member of the U.N. High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change.

Sen. Gary Hart

Political Leader

United States

Senator Gary Hart is president of Hart International, Ltd. He previously served as the chair of the Threat Reduction Advisory Council at the U.S. Department of Defense and as chair of the International Security Advisory Board at the Department of State. From 1975 to 1987, he represented Colorado in the U.S. Senate. During his time as senator, he served on many committees, including the Intelligence Oversight Committee, the Budget Committee and the Armed Services Committee, where he specialized in nuclear arms control. Since leaving office, he has been involved in international law, business and security policy. Hart was co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, whose January 2001 report notably found the U.S. dangerously vulnerable to terrorist attacks and recommended the establishment of a Cabinet-level National Homeland Security Agency.

In recent years, Hart has worked with numerous think tanks and nonprofits focused on national security issues including Council for a Livable World and the American Security Project where he is chairman emeritus of the board of directors.

Pres. Václav Havel

Political Leader

Czech Republic

President Václav Havel served as the president of the Czech Republic and was widely known for his work as a playwright, poet and Soviet dissident during the Cold War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia in a wave of public support. During his time in office, he presided over the peaceful division of the nation into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. His time in office saw the Czech Republic’s rise on the international stage with the country’s admission to NATO.

In the 1960s and 70s, Havel wrote plays, essays and articles in support of an independent and liberal Czechoslovakia. His writings were denounced and banned by the Soviet government and in 1978 he was sent to prison for his involvement with the dissident group the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted. After his release, he continued to criticize the government through the underground press and in 1989 the opposition movement that Havel helped form, Civic Forum, culminated in the Velvet Revolution.

For his work as a writer and particularly as a human rights champion, Havel was awarded many international prizes, including the Erasmus Prize, the Charlemagne Prize and the UNESCO Prize for the Teaching of Human Rights. In 2008, he became a member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.

Havel passed away on December 18, 2011.

Min. Yoshimasa Hayashi

Political Leader

Japan

Yoshimasa Hayashi is currently Japan’s minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology and a member of the House of Councillors. He is the former Japanese minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Hayashi has broad political experience, having served during his time at Harvard University as an assistant to U.S. Congressman Steve Neal and U.S. Senator William Roth before returning to Japan. During his time as a member of the House of Councilors, he has served as state secretary for finance, senior vice minister and, briefly, as minister of defense and minister of state for economic and fiscal policy.

Prof. Stanley Hoffmann

National Security Expert

France

Professor Stanley Hoffmann was the Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard University, where his work encompassed international relations, French political history, European history and politics and American foreign policy. He taught at Harvard starting in 1955 and served as the co-founder and chairman of Harvard’s Center for European Studies from 1969 to 1995. Hoffman earned his degree from the Institut d’études Politique of Paris. In addition to his highly esteemed and decorated academic career, he was a frequent intellectual commentator, contributing articles to periodicals such as Foreign Policy, The New York Review of Books and The New York Times. Hoffman passed away on September 13, 2015.

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy

National Security Expert

Pakistan

Dr. Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy is the distinguished professor of physics and mathematics at Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan. He previously served as the chairman and professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, where he taught for over 34 years. He has a doctorate in nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the recipient of several prizes for his contributions to mathematics, electronics, science and education. He is visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland and Stanford University, and often lectures at U.S. and European universities and research laboratories. Hoodbhoy is author of “Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality,” and chairs Mashal Books, a non-profit organization that publishes books in Urdu on social, philosophical and scientific issues. He is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and a member of the Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism of the World Federation of Scientists.

Gen. (ret.) Charles Horner

Military Commander

United States

Retired General Charles Horner was commander in chief of North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Space Command responsible for the aerospace defense of the U.S. and Canada. He was also in command of all U.S. and allied air assets during operation Desert Storm as the commander of U.S. Central Command Air Forces. Following his retirement, Horner has served as a business consultant and government advisor and has appeared on domestic and international media outlets as an expert on national security. He is currently vice chairman of the the board of directors for the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.

A highly-decorated officer, Horner has been honored by France, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Canada. In addition to writing numerous articles on national security, he co-authored a best-selling non-fiction novel with Tom Clancy, “Every Man a Tiger.”

Amb. Hua Liming

Diplomat

China

Ambassador Hua Liming is a distinguished research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies. He is the former Chinese ambassador to Iran, the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands. From 1991 to 2001, he served as the Chinese permanent representative to the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Hua earned a degree in Persian from Peking University and was one of the first Chinese students to learn Farsi. After graduating, Hua joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs serving as the Persian interpreter for many Chinese state leaders, including Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaopeng.