Guide to Specialists

Gary Matthews
Director, Task Force on the United Nations and Special Projects

ARCHIVED SPECIALIST PROFILE

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Languages: Russian, German

Gary Matthews came to USIP in 2004 to work with the Task Force on the United Nations and leads the Institute’s project on international organizations and peacebuilding. He has also served as acting director of public affairs and communications, as the Secretariat director for the Economy and Reconstruction Expert Working Group of the Iraq Study Group, and is involved with Haiti and other special projects.

In his thirty-year career with the U.S. government, Matthews served in the Foreign Service and the U.S. Army, including as American ambassador to Malta, special coordinator for the Soviet Union and East Europe, and principal deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs.

His foreign assignments, in addition to Malta, were in Germany, Poland, Russia, Vietnam, and the Balkans. Matthews held a number of senior peaceekeeping positions in the Balkans. He was assistant secretary-general of the United Nations, serving as the principal deputy head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). He also served in two positions in Bosnia and Herzegovina: supervisor of Brcko and deputy high representative, and director of the Regional Center in Mostar of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

He has received the Superior Honor and Wilbur Carr awards from the Department of State and the Cross of Gallantry from the Republic of South Vietnam. Matthews has also worked in the private sector as editorial manager of the Kiplinger Letters and a member of the Board of the Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. He was also director of International Programs for the National Academy of Public Administration.

Matthews holds a B.A. in history from Drury College, a master’s in political science from Oklahoma State University, and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.