Pradeep Kumar Gautam is Honorary Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies, United Service Institution (USI), India. He is a veteran of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War and Operation Meghdoot (Siachen glacier). He was a Research Fellow and Consultant at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) from 2005 to 2018. He has worked extensively on Indian knowledge traditions. Some of his publications include A Study of the Kural: Concepts and Themes (Monograph, MP-IDSA), The Nitisara by Kamandaka: Continuity and Change from Kautilya’s Arthashastra (Monograph, MP-IDSA), and Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Chanakya Niti (Journal of Defence Studies, MP-IDSA). He has also co-edited three volumes on Indigenous Historical Knowledge: Kautilya and His Vocabulary (I, II, III, Pentagon Press).

Saurabh Mishra is Associate Professor at the Amity Institute of Defence & Strategic Studies (AIDSS). Prior to this he was a Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA); and also worked with the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi. He received his Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has co-edited three volumes on Indigenous Historical Knowledge: Kautilya and His Vocabulary (I, II, III, Pentagon Press). He is also a co-editor and contributor to the book titled The Arthasastra in a Transcultural Perspective: Comparing Kautilya with Sun-Zi, Nizam al-Mulk, Barani and Machiavelli, a product of a collaborative project of the MP-IDSA, Heidelberg University and the National University of Singapore.