Dr. James Ludes

I am executive producer and co-host of "Story in the Public Square," an eight-time Telly Award-winning, weekly public affairs program broadcast on SiriusXM's POTUS channel as well as on public television stations across the country. The show is part of a broader Pell Center initiative to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.

Over a 30-year career, I have worked at the intersection of academia, politics and national security. In those years, I worked as legislative assistant for defense and foreign policy to then-Sen. John Kerry, advised the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama, led the Obama-Biden transition team's processes for winning Senate confirmation of Department of Defense nominees for the roles of deputy secretary of defense, under secretary of defense for policy, comptroller and general counsel. Those political experiences notwithstanding, I built the American Security Project, a Washington, DC, think-tank, into a leading voice of a principled, bipartisan approach to national security.

My dissertation, "A Consistency of Purpose: Political Warfare and the National Security Strategy of the Eisenhower Administration," was completed in 2003. I am editor of, and contributor to, "Iraq Uncensored" (2009) and co-editor of two previous books: "Attacking Terrorism" (2004) and "Twenty-First Century Proliferation" (2001).

My research today focuses on foreign disinformation in American politics. I speak regularly on the topic and publish, through the Pell Center, "The Active Measures Newsletter," as well as "The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast" - weekly examinations of the best reporting on the topic.