Biography

Thomas Homer-Dixon is founder and Executive Director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he received his BA in political science from Carleton University and, in 1989, his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in international relations, defense policy, and conflict theory. For nearly two decades, he directed the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto; in 2008 he joined the faculty at the University of Waterloo, where he founded the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation. He retired from his faculty position as a University Research Chair in 2021.

One of Canada’s foremost public intellectuals and a best-selling author, his award-winning books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization; The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?; and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. His latest book, Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril, was published by Knopf Canada in 2020. Thomas writes regularly for the Globe and Mail and has published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Scientific American, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times.

Considered among the world’s leading experts on the intricate links between nature, technology, and society, his current research focuses on threats to global security in the twenty-first century, including economic instability, climate change, and nationalist authoritarianism and on how people, organizations, and societies can better solve complex problems. He has provided briefings to the Privy Council Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Department of Defence in Canada; to the Foreign Office in the United Kingdom; and to the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, and the State Department in the United States.