October 2, 1990

Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, founding vice president and director of the environmental think tank, World Resources Institute, spoke on “Preserving the Global Environment: The Challenge for the 1990’s.” Matthews discussed population growth, tropical deforestation and global warming, questioning whether political frameworks that saw the nation-state as the basic unit of political-economic systems could deal with global ecological problems. Acknowledging the political difficulties of adapting to sustainable economies, she proposed environmental issues be considered as matters of national security.

In 1997, Dr. Mathews assumed the presidency of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.