What is often missing from policy debates are voices from the Heartland. Thoughts and advice from people who were raised here, stayed or returned here, and understand the world from a perspective different than those whose sole goal in writing is to position themselves for their next government job is often not part of the discourse when formulating policy.

Likewise, there is a dearth of individuals from public universities and small, regional liberal arts colleges who are able to find their way into influencing policy without having to cycle through DC or a select group of schools.

With this site, I hope to begin to change this.

I will be publishing some of my own thoughts on foreign and national security policy here as well as giving my students the opportunity to publish their own pieces on those topics. I also want to offer this chance to other students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, who are interested in sharing their ideas, as well as to others who would like to contribute.

If you would like to write for this site or have students who wish to do so, please get in touch with me at drjonathanzludwig (at) yahoo (dot) com. I will gladly consider for publication short, focused pieces, between roughly 750–1500 words, relating to foreign policy or national security policy.

Welcome to Views from the Heartland.

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Jonathan Z. Ludwig is a Teaching Associate Professor of Russian at Oklahoma State University.