Biography.guide
Home › People › Chief executive officer › Jessica Mathews
Portrait of Jessica Mathews

Jessica Mathews

b. 1946

President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Don't just read it — keep itBiographies to ownE-book · Audio · Video From $7 →

About Jessica Mathews

Born 1946. Jessica Mathews is an American chief executive officer and peace activist.

Jessica Tuchman Mathews ( Tuchman; born July 4, 1946) is an American international affairs expert with a focus on climate and energy, defense and security, nuclear weapons, and conflict and governance. She was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in five other countries, from 1997 to 2015. She has also held jobs in the Executive and Legislative branches of government, management and research in nonprofits, and journalism.

Biography Jessica Tuchman was born on July 4, 1946, to parents Barbara Tuchman (née Wertheim) (1912–1989), historian and Pulitzer Prize winner, and Lester Tuchman (c. 1904–1997), medical researcher and professor of clinical medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is ethnically Jewish. Her maternal grandfather was banker Maurice Wertheim.

Mathews attended Radcliffe College (1963–1967), earning her A.B. in 1967. She continued her education in biochemistry and biophysics at California Institute of Technology (1968–1973), receiving her doctorate in 1973.

From 1977 to 1979, Mathews was director of the Office of Global Issues of the National Security Council, covering nuclear proliferation, conventional arms sales policy, chemical and biological warfare, and human rights. In 1993, she returned to government as deputy to the Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs.

Mathews served on the editorial board of the Washington Post from 1980 to 1982, covering energy, environment, science, technology, arms control, health, and other issues. Later, she became a weekly columnist for the Washington Post, writing a column that appeared nationwide and in the International Herald Tribune.

From 1993 to 1997, Mathews was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and served as Director of the council's Washington program. On April 9, 1996, Mathews delivered the Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World Affairs Fellowship Lecture in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall at Cornell University. While at the Council on Foreign Relations in 1997 she published her article "Power Shift" in its journal, Foreign Affairs. Her work was chosen by the journal's editors as one of the most influential pieces of writing in the publication's 75 years.

From 1997 to 2015, she was President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a foreign policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

In 2012, she was elected to serve as one of 13 members of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, the main governing board of the university, and continues to serve in this capacity. He had two children from a previous marriage. They had two sons: Oliver Max Tuchman Mathews and Jordan Henry Morgenthau Mathews. Her first marriage ended in divorce in 1993. She was married to retired Air Force General Charles G. Boyd.

Publications Articles "Redefining Security." Foreign Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 2, Spring 1989, pp. 162–177. . . "A Small Price to Pay for Proving Malthus Wrong." International Herald Tribune, June 9, 1994, p. 88. "Power Shift." Foreign Affairs, Vol. 76, No. 1, January/February 1997, pp. 50–66. . . "Estranged Partners." Foreign Policy, No. 127, November/December 2001, pp. 48–53. . . with Charles G. Boyd. The New York Times, September 19, 2002, p. A35. The Atlantic, April 27, 2017. Archived from the original.

Books (edited) Preserving the Global Environment: The Challenge of Shared Leadership. New York: W. W. Norton & Company; The American Assembly, Columbia University; Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute, 1991. Global Ten: Challenges and Opportunities for the President in 2013. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2012.

Book chapters "The Challenge of Managing Dominance." In: Curtis, Alan (ed). Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield; Washington, D.C.: Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, 2004, pp. 83–89.

Transcripts "Making Inspections Work In Iraq." Arms Control Today, Vol. 32, No. 9, November 2002, pp. 12–18. . "An Arms Control Association press conference with Daryl G. Kimball, Robert Gallucci, Jessica T. Mathews, Jonathan B. Tucker."

Biography shop

Don’t just read it —
keep it.

Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.

  • E-book
  • Audio
  • Video
Browse the shop — from $7

Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free

Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Education
Radcliffe College, California Institute of Technology, Harvard University
Employers
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Also known as
Jessica Tuchman Mathews

People in Jessica Mathews's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Jessica Mathews's

Frequently asked questions

Who is Jessica Mathews?

President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

When was Jessica Mathews born?

Jessica Mathews was born on 4 July 1946.

What is Jessica Mathews's occupation?

Jessica Mathews is a chief executive officer and peace activist.

What nationality is Jessica Mathews?

Jessica Mathews is American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Jessica Mathews

· Wikidata: Q3177681

· DBpedia: Jessica Mathews

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Jessica Mathews. https://biography.guide/jessica-mathews/

MLA: "Jessica Mathews." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/jessica-mathews/.

Chicago: "Jessica Mathews." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/jessica-mathews/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Page generated 2026-09-27 05:26 UTC