Cliff Lord was a cipher operator in Britain's Royal Signals during the 1960s, serving in England and Germany and on active service in South Arabia. He is Honorary Historian for the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals. Cliff is coauthor of numerous books and articles on military history.

The books include: Swift and Sure: A History of the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals and Army Signalling in New Zealand, New Zealand Army Distinguishing Patches 1911-1991 (2 vols), The Armed Forces of Aden 1831-1967, ANZAC Elite: The Airborne & Special Forces Insignia of Australia & New Zealand, and The Royal Corps of Signals: Unit Histories of the Corps (1920-2001) and its Antecedents. Cliff is a Team Leader at the Southern Cross Cable Network Operations Centre, Auckland, which is run by Telecom New Zealand.

Athol Yates teaches at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. He teaches internal security, disaster management and public policy. His research interest is the militaries of the UAE. He previously was the Executive Director of the Australian Security Research Centre in Canberra.