Jessica Ludwig serves as Fellow, Global Policy at the George W. Bush Institute.
Jessica Ludwig is a Fellow of Global Policy at the George W. Bush Institute. Through writing projects and in her previous role as Director of Global Policy, she has contributed to efforts that confront authoritarian regimes and advance free societies globally. Among these is Captured State, a report series examining the geopolitical and security implications of Taliban corruption and repression in Afghanistan, and the Struggle for Freedom series profiling leading democracy advocates, human rights defenders, and political prisoners around the world.
Prior to the Bush Institute, Ludwig was a senior program officer at the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies, where she coauthored and coedited (with Christopher Walker) various publications that examine authoritarian “sharp power” influence and its effects on democracy, including A Full-Spectrum Response to Sharp Power: The Vulnerabilities and Strengths of Open Societies (2021) and Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence (2017).
In addition to speaking at conferences and briefing U.S. and international policymakers on the challenges posed by authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia, her writing has been published in The Bulwark, The Diplomat, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Democracy, the Miami Herald,and the National Interest. She also serves as a member of the Forum 2000 Program Council and International Coalition for Democratic Renewal.
Ludwig is fluent in Spanish and holds a M.A. in Latin American and Hemispheric Studies from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and a B.A. in International Studies from Baylor University.
