Notes on Contributors to Part I Hooshang Amirahmadi holds a Ph.D. in regional economic planning and international development from Cornell University and is a professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is Chair and Graduate Director of the Department and Director of the University’s Middle Eastern Studies program. He helped found the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis (CIRA) and served as its Executive Director for many years. Professor Amirahmadi is author of the widely acclaimed: Revolution and Economic Transition: The Iranian Experience(1990). He is also editor of several books and has published over 150 journal articles, book chapters and review articles. Professor Amirahmadi has held several fellowships, has been a recipient of several grants and is a frequent contributor to national and international media on Iranian economic, oil and regional policies. He has served as consultant for the UNDP, the Aga Khan Foundation, the World Bank, and a number of private corporations and law firms and several developing nations on matters of national and regional economic development, energy and industrial policies, post-war reconstruction, disaster management, foreign investment and Middle East political economy. Dieter Dettke is the Executive Director of the Washington Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He studied political science at the Universities of Bonn, Berlin and Strasbourg(France). Prior to his tenure in Washington, Dr. Dettke served as Political Counselor to the SPD Parliamentary Group of the German Bundestag from 1974 to 1984, and as Staff Director at the Office of the State Minister of the German Foreign Ministry in 1982. He is the author of Allianz im Wandel and has published numerous articles and papers on security issues, East-West relations and U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Gernot Erler is a Member of the German Parliament for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) representing the city of Freiburg. He is Deputy Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group and is the group’s coordinator for international affairs. As Deputy Chairman, Mr. Erler’s responsibilities and areas of expertise include foreign affairs, security, human rights and development policy. Mr. Erler serves on the committees for foreign affairs, defense, economic cooperation and development, human rights and humanitarian aid and European Union affairs. Sheila Heslin served as Director for Russian, Ukranian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council in 1995 and 1996, where she had principal responsibility for coordinating U.S. policy toward the states of the South Caucasus and Central Asia as well as former Soviet Union energy issues. Ms. Heslin has written a number of papers on the status and prospects for Caspian energy and pipeline development. She began government service in 1988, completing assignments at the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Congressional Research Service. In each case, primary responsibilities were related to U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union. Ms. Heslin graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University 105