David W. Lesch is the Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of History at Trinity University. He is the author or editor of fourteen books, including Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History, and The Arab Spring: The Hope and Reality of the Uprisings (with Mark L. Haas).

Mark L. Haas is the Raymond J. Kelley Endowed Chair in International Relations and professor in the Political Science Department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Clash of Ideologies: Middle Eastern Politics and American Security and The Ideological Origins of Great Power Politics, 1789-1989, and coeditor of The Arab Spring (with David W. Lesch).