Author Biographies

Dean Cheng is the Senior Research Fellow for Chinese political and security affairs at the Asia Studies Center of The Heritage Foundation. He specializes in Chinese military and foreign policy, and has written extensively on Chinese military doctrine, technological implications of its space program, and “dual use” issues associated with China’s industrial and scientific infrastructure.

Before joining The Heritage Foundation, he was a senior analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded research and development center, and a senior analyst with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the Fortune 500 specialist in defense and homeland security. He has testified before Congress, spoken at the (American) National Defense University, US Air Force Academy, and the National Space Symposium, and been published in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Alan Chong is Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He has published widely on the notion of soft power and the role of ideas in constructing the international relations of Singapore and Asia. His publications have appeared in The Pacific Review; International Relations of the Asia-Pacific; Asian Survey; East Asia: an International Quarterly; Politics, Religion and Ideology; the Review of International Studies; the Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Armed Forces and Society. He is also the author of Foreign Policy in Global Information Space: Actualizing Soft Power (Palgrave, 2007). He is currently working on several projects exploring the notion of ‘Asian international theory’. His interest in soft power has also led to inquiry into the sociological and philosophical foundations of international communication. In the latter area, he is currently working on a manuscript titled ‘The International Politics of Communication: Representing Community in a Globalizing World’. In tandem, he has pursued a fledgling interest in researching cyber security issues. He has frequently been interviewed in the Asian media and consulted in think-tank networks in the region.

Alice Ekman is Associate Research Fellow in charge of China at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), where she conducts analyses of major domestic and foreign policy developments. She is an Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po in Paris, and also lectures at the French Institute for Higher National Defense Studies and the War College. Alice Ekman was formerly Visiting Scholar at Tsinghua University (Beijing), Research Officer at the Embassy of France in China, and Consultant in a Paris-based strategy firm. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, she regularly undertakes research fieldwork in China and East Asia.

She holds an MA from the London School of Economics in International Relations, Economics, and Anthropology (China focus), and a PhD in International Relations from Sciences Po. Alice Ekman is currently a member of the EU committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).

Thomas Flichy de La Neuville is Professor in international relations at Saint-Cyr military academy. Specialist of Iran, he has studied persian in the National Institute of Oriental Languages an cultures and holds a PhD in legal history. He is visiting professor in Oxford and Annapolis. Amongst his recent publications, Iran-Russia-China, a new mongol empire?

Xu Longdi is a PhD and Associate Research Fellow at China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), Beijing. He received his PhD in international relations from the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 2009 and joined CIIS the same year. His expertise covers International Relations Theory, international security, and EU politics and foreign policy. Now he runs a program on “International Norms and Cyber Security”.

Samuel Cherian is Associate Fellow in the Strategic Technologies Centre at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, an autonomous think tank affiliated to the Indian Ministry of Defence. He has written on various cyber security issues, including critical infrastructure protection, cyber resilience, cybercrime, and internet governance. He has also presented on these topics at seminars and round tables around the world as well as different fora in India. His recent publications include Cybersecurity and Cyberwar, (October 2013 issue of Seminar magazine), Emerging Trends in Cyber Security, (IDSA Web Comments March 28, 2012), and Prospects for India-US Cyber Security Cooperation, (Volume 31, Issue 2, Strategic Analysis September 2011). His monograph Global, Regional and Domestic Dynamics of Cybersecurity will be published shortly. He was co-ordinator of the IDSA Task Force on Cyber Security which published a report on “India's Cyber Security Challenges” in March 2012.

He holds a PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Daniel Ventre holds a PhD in Political Science (University of Versailles). He is the Secretary General of GERN (Groupe Européen de Recherches sur les Normativités – European Research Group into Norms), researcher at CESDIP (Center for Sociological Research on Law and Criminal Justice Institutions. CNRS/University of Versailles/Ministry of Justice), Chairholder in Cyber Security & Cyber Defense (Saint-Cyr/Sogeti/Thales). He is the author of a number of books and articles (published in French, English and Chinese) on cyberwarfare, information warfare, cyberconflict, cybersecurity and cyberdefense. He has published:

Information Warfare – National Defense Industry Press, Beijing, 218 pages, January 2014.

Cyber Conflicts, Competing National Perspectives, ISTE, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York, May 2012, 330 pages.

Cyberwar and Information Warfare, ISTE, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York, July 2011, 448 pages.

Cyberattaque et Cyberdéfense, Paris, Editions Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Cybercriminalité et Cyberconflits”, August 2011, 312 pages.

Cyberespace et acteurs du cyberconflit, Paris, Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Cybercriminalité et Cyberconflits”, April 2011, 288 pages.

Cyberguerre et guerre de l’information. Stratégies, règles, enjeux, Paris, Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Cybercriminalité et Cyberconflits”, September 2010, 318 pages.

Information Warfare, ISTE, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2009, 298 pages.

La guerre de l’information, Paris, Hermès Lavoisier, Collection “Finance Gestion Management”, 2007.