2024 WPS Symposium: Keynote Dr. Valerie Hudson, George H.W. Bush Chair, Texas A&M University

"The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide"
Dr. Valerie M. Hudson is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the George H.W. Bush Chair in the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where she directs the Program on Women, Peace, and Security. Hudson was named to the list of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers for 2009, was recognized as Distinguished Scholar of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA/ISA, 2015), a Distinguished Scholar of Political Demography and Geography (PDG/ISA, 2022), and awarded an inaugural Andrew Carnegie Fellowship as well as an inaugural Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Australian National University (2017). Winner of numerous teaching awards including the Silver Star Award, and recipient of a National Science Foundation research grant and a Minerva Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, Hudson is a co-founder of The WomanStats Project (womanstats.org), which includes the largest compilation of data on the status of women in the world today. Hudson is co-author of Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population, Sex and World Peace, The Hillary Doctrine, and The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide.
The U.S. Naval War College (NWC) hosted the 10th iteration of its Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Symposium onboard Naval Station Newport, May 2-3.
The symposium, themed “Advancing Gendered Security in a Complex World: Hard Power, Smart Power, Soft Power,” aimed to foster a shared understanding of the complex and dynamic global security environment through examination of women’s influence and experience as stakeholders and catalysts of change alongside men.
The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.