Barbara C. Matthews

  • Nonresident Senior Fellow
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New Atlanticist

Jan 27, 2020

The potential global impact of the coronavirus outbreak

By David A. Wemer

Beijing “must act" to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Miyeon Oh says, "especially in light of the indirect but potentially massive economic, social, and political impacts of the coronavirus in the region and around the world.” There is growing concern in Beijing as well, Robert A. Manning added, “that if this pandemic is only in its early stages, it could become the straw that broke the camel’s back for an already anemic economy.”

China Coronavirus

New Atlanticist

Jan 27, 2020

How the transatlantic trade agenda can get its groove back in 2020

By Barbara C. Matthews

Transatlantic policymakers should not waste this opportunity to redefine the transatlantic relationship. Leaders looking for traction should learn from the recent past and chart a different trajectory this year. In particular, they should acknowledge that different interests exist, focus on economic areas where interests align well, and pragmatically maximize efforts to align commitments.

European Union Trade and tariffs

New Atlanticist

Dec 13, 2019

How the USMCA impacts transatlantic trade policy

By Barbara C. Matthews

The attention today rightly sits with the breakthroughs regarding the labor and environment provisions of the USMCA. But trade policy strategists in Europe and the United States should not delay in using the USMCA’s digital trade chapter as a catalyst to define new foundations for cross-border trade in data and services which will drive economic growth and innovation for the foreseeable future.

Digital Policy European Union

Barbara C. Matthews is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. She is a globally recognized public-policy and quantitative-finance leader. She is also the founder and chief executive officer of BCMstrategy, Inc., a data company that uses patented language technology to help portfolio managers and advocates measure public-policy volatility and anticipate public-policy trajectories.

In government, Matthews had the honor to serve as the first US Treasury attaché to the European Union (Senate-confirmed diplomatic rank: minister-counselor). As such, she was the most senior US Treasury official in Europe at the start of the Great Financial Crisis. She also served as senior counsel to the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee under the leadership of Chairman Michael G. Oxley. In the private sector, she founded and ran a successful policy-consulting business during the Great Financial Crisis. She was also the lead global strategist and advocate for the Institute of International Finance, Inc. in the 1990s and early 2000s, during which she worked directly with global bank chief executive officers, chief risk officers, their teams, and their counterparts in the world’s leading central banks and financial regulators.

She holds a political science degree from Georgetown University and two law degrees (JD with honors and LLM in comparative and international law) from Duke University Law School. A member of the Bretton Woods Committee and the Council on Foreign Relations, she is also a faculty/mentor at the Maxwell School’s National Security Strategies program at Syracuse University. She and her husband reside in the Commonwealth of Virginia; they have one daughter who is in college.