Valerie Hudson

Valerie Hudson is University Distinguished Professor and 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. She is also director of the Program on Women, Peace, and Security. For twenty-five years she was a professor of political science at Brigham Young University. She holds both master's and PhD degrees from Ohio State University and bachelor's degree from BYU.

She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was named #97 of 100 Top Global Thinkers of 2009 by Foreign Policy Magazine.

Co-authoring with Andrea den Boer, Hudson published a study regarding gender demographics in Asia. Their findings, published in Bare Branches, Sex and World Peace by The MIT Press, detail the dangers of gender imbalance in Asia and the problems of an overabundance of young males.

The research was lauded by the magazine as an "indispensable 2004 study (that) may have been partially responsible for the scaling back of China's one-child policy," according to Foreign Policy magazine. Hudson also recently published another study that shows the best predictor of a country's stability is its treatment of women. [1] She developed a nation-by-nation database on women called WomanStats Database.

She was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2015) and was a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Australian National University in 2017.

She is also the author of The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy (2015) Foreign Policy Analysis: Classical and Contemporary Theory (2007, 2013, 2019), The First Political order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide, and contributed to David C. Dollahite's Strengthening Our Families: An In-depth Look at The Proclamation on The Family. She co-wrote Women in Eternity, Women in Zion with A. Don Sorensen, and co-edited A Time of War, a Time of Peace: Latter-day Saint Ethics of War and Diplomacy (2017), Foreign Policy Analysis Beyond North America (2015), Wielding the Sword While Proclaiming Peace: LDS Perspectives on Reconciling the Demands of National Security with the Imperatives of Revealed Truth (2004).

She and husband David Cassler are the parents of eight children.

To see the entire list of the "100 Top Global Thinkers of 2009" click here.