TATIANA ALEKSEEVA is Head of the Department of Political Theory at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), which operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Formerly the Head of the Department of Political Philosophy at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Philosophy in Moscow, she writes on contractarian political philosophy and international relations.WILLIAM GAY is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He specializes in war and peace studies (in which he has published extensively), social and political philosophy (particularly Russia), and continental philosophy. He is an Associate Editor of VIBS and the Editor of its Special Series on Contemporary Russian Philosophy.