Jonathan Ward

Senior Fellow

Jonathan Ward Hudson

At A Glance:

Jonathan Ward is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute.

Biography

Jonathan Ward is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute where he conducts work on US-China policy, with a focus on economics.

Dr. Ward has been studying China, Russia, and India for nearly 20 years since his undergraduate studies in Russian and Chinese language at Columbia University. He is the author of The Decisive Decade: American Grand Strategy for Triumph Over China, which focuses on revitalizing US and allied economic power, the role of major corporations and financial institutions in US national security, and the return to peace through strength. Dr. Ward is also the author of China’s Vision of Victory, a guide to the Chinese government’s global grand strategy. The Financial Times called China’s Vision of Victory “one of the first books to make the explicit argument for containment of China by the West” and the National Interest described it as “primed to serve as a defining pocket guide for Washington’s new cold warriors in the years to come.” Dr. Ward’s work on China was publicly commended at the White House during the signing ceremony of the US-China Phase One Trade Deal.

Dr. Ward earned his PhD in China-India relations at the University of Oxford, utilizing Chinese-language archives that the Chinese Communist Party has since closed to the world. He lived and traveled globally for over a decade, including in China, India, Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East, where he learned Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and Syrian and Egyptian Arabic, among other languages. As a subject matter expert, he has been an advisor to the US Department of Defense on Chinese long-term strategy and has briefed US government audiences including at US Strategic Command, US Indo-Pacific Command, the US Department of Commerce, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, US Space Force STARCOM, and the Strategy Division of the US Naval Staff. He is also a graduate of the Oxford Chicago Valuation Programme, a joint program in corporate finance and valuation taught by the University of Oxford’s Said Business School and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. 

Through his strategy consulting company, Atlas Organization, Dr. Ward helps Fortune 500 companies and financial institutions understand US-China global competition, improve their risk assessments on China, and build new global strategies that can withstand historic geopolitical change. He has advised leading American corporations in the technology, manufacturing, finance, and other strategic sectors, and he has briefed market leaders in the defense, aerospace, technology, financial services, telecommunications, automotive, maritime, and industrial sectors on Chinese strategy and US-China competition.

Dr. Ward is a frequently invited speaker for government, military, industry, and financial audiences. He is a regular guest on national and international television and radio. His commentary has been featured on Fox Business, Fox, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN International, Forbes, CFO Magazine, the American Interest, the National Interest, the Financial Times, and the New York Times.

Dr. Ward received his PhD in China-India relations and MSt in global and imperial history from the University of Oxford and his BA in Russian language and literature from Columbia University.

17
December 2024
Past Event
Homeland Security and the China Challenge: A Conversation with Congressman Mark Green
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Mark Green
Jonathan Ward
People walk by a building that is suspected of being used as a secret Chinese police station for the purpose of repressing dissidents living in the United States in lower Manhattan on April 18, 2023. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
17
December 2024
Past Event
Homeland Security and the China Challenge: A Conversation with Congressman Mark Green

Congressman Mark Green will join Hudson’s Dr. Jonathan Ward to discuss the importance of cybersecurity, critical infrastructure defense, maritime and border security, the fentanyl crisis, and more.

People walk by a building that is suspected of being used as a secret Chinese police station for the purpose of repressing dissidents living in the United States in lower Manhattan on April 18, 2023. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Mark Green
Jonathan Ward
11
December 2024
Past Event
Sanctioned Voices: Spotlighting China’s Global Repression
Featured Speakers:
Frances Hui
Elfidar Iltebir
Jamil Jaffer
Dr. Daniel Twining
Jonathan Ward
Damon Wilson
Tamara Cofman Wittes
Joseph Wu
Moderator:
Miles Yu
A pro-democracy activists stands with a yellow umbrella as part of an art installation outside Hong Kong's Government complex on October 9, 2014. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
11
December 2024
Past Event
Sanctioned Voices: Spotlighting China’s Global Repression

The discussion will cover China’s use of economic sanctions, surveillance, and coercion to silence critics, especially those who risk their lives and freedom to advocate for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

A pro-democracy activists stands with a yellow umbrella as part of an art installation outside Hong Kong's Government complex on October 9, 2014. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Frances Hui
Elfidar Iltebir
Jamil Jaffer
Dr. Daniel Twining
Jonathan Ward
Damon Wilson
Tamara Cofman Wittes
Joseph Wu
Moderator:
Miles Yu
10
December 2024
Past Event
India and China in 2025
Featured Speakers:
Aparna Pande
Jonathan Ward
Dr. Daniel Markey
Indian army soldiers walk near Zojila mountain pass that connects Srinagar to Ladakh on February 28, 2021. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)
10
December 2024
Past Event
India and China in 2025

Join Hudson experts for an preview of India-China relations in 2025.

Indian army soldiers walk near Zojila mountain pass that connects Srinagar to Ladakh on February 28, 2021. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Aparna Pande
Jonathan Ward
Dr. Daniel Markey
18
November 2024
Past Event
America’s Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan
Featured Speakers:
Jonathan Ward
Dr. James Graham Wilson
President Ronald Reagan with Medal of Freedom winner Arms Negotiator Paul Nitze. (Diana Walker via Getty Images)
18
November 2024
Past Event
America’s Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan

State Department Historian Dr. James Graham Wilson will discuss his biography of Nitze, America's Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan, with Hudson’s Dr. Jonathan Ward, an expert on US-China competition and the author of The Decisive Decade: American Grand Strategy for Triumph over China.

President Ronald Reagan with Medal of Freedom winner Arms Negotiator Paul Nitze. (Diana Walker via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Jonathan Ward
Dr. James Graham Wilson
27
September 2024
Past Event
Purpose and Power: US Grand Strategy from the Revolutionary Era to the Present
Featured Speakers:
Jonathan Ward
Dr. Donald Stoker
An antique illustration of Washington in Delaware. (Getty Images)
27
September 2024
Past Event
Purpose and Power: US Grand Strategy from the Revolutionary Era to the Present

Join Hudson for a book talk with Dr. Stoker and Hudson’s Dr. Jonathan Ward on how America can learn from this history to meet the challenges ahead.

An antique illustration of Washington in Delaware. (Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Jonathan Ward
Dr. Donald Stoker
11
April 2024
Past Event
Chips and the China Threat
Featured Speakers:
Roslyn Layton
David Feith
Jonathan Ward
Moderator:
Harold Furchtgott-Roth
Special forces soldiers carry out sniper training in Qianxinan, China, July 15, 2023. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
11
April 2024
Past Event
Chips and the China Threat

Experts discuss how the US can outcompete China on the world stage economically, diplomatically, militarily, and ideologically.

Special forces soldiers carry out sniper training in Qianxinan, China, July 15, 2023. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Roslyn Layton
David Feith
Jonathan Ward
Moderator:
Harold Furchtgott-Roth