The State of the State Department and National Security

President Biden has often said, “The world is at an inflection point.” Indeed, the United States faces urgent international and transnational challenges. In these dangerous times, how important can diplomacy be? Military intervention has always remained an alternative, and its use has grown in frequency since the nation’s founding.

If the State Department is, “at the end of the day, a national security agency” as Deputy Secretary Verma has said, how well is the department handling our current global inflection point? What are the State Department’s priorities, and how well is it equipped to address them?

Join us for WorldBoston’s annual State of the State Department special event, an opportunity to consider the U.S. State Department and American diplomacy within the context of U.S. national interests. This year’s program will focus on “The State of the State Department & National Security.”

For this discussion, we are honored to host Deputy Secretary Richard Verma, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. Deputy Secretary Verma will be joined in conversation by Dr. Monica Duffy Toft, Academic Dean and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School and Co-Author of Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy.

This program will happen in-person in the Rabb Lecture Hall of the Boylston Street Building of the Central Library in Copley Square and over Zoom webinar. For in-person attendees, following the main program there will be a reception with refreshments from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM in the Newsfeed Café on the first floor of the Boylston Street Building. Please check the "Registration Required" box on this calendar entry for registration instructions.

This program is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required.

For in-person attendance, register on this Eventbrite page.

For online attendance over Zoom webinar, register here.

Richard R. Verma serves as the Deputy Secretary of State for Management & Resources. In this role, he acts as the Chief Operating Officer of the Department, and leads the Department’s efforts on modernization, foreign assistance, and a wide range of workforce and strategic issues. Deputy Secretary Verma previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to India, where he led one of the largest U.S. diplomatic missions and championed historic progress in bilateral ties. He is also a former Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs and the former National Security Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader. He has also had a distinguished career in the private sector, most recently serving as the Chief Legal Officer and Head of Global Public Policy for Mastercard. He is a former partner at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, and the Vice Chairman of The Asia Group, a global consulting firm. He also served on the T. Rowe Price corporate board of directors. Deputy Secretary Verma is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and the recipient of numerous military awards and civilian decorations, including the Meritorious Service Medal and the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award. He is also the recipient of the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, and the Chief Justice Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award. Deputy Secretary Verma was a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism Commission, and the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He has served on a number of non-profit boards, including the Ford Foundation, Lehigh University, and the National Endowment for Democracy. Deputy Secretary Verma was a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and he holds multiple academic degrees, including his doctorate (Ph.D.) from Georgetown University and his law degree (J.D.) from American University.

Monica Duffy Toft is Academic Dean and Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before joining Fletcher, she taught at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, she directed the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs and was the assistant director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. She was educated at the University of Chicago (MA and Ph.D. in political science) and at the University of California, Santa Barbara (BA in political science and Slavic languages and literature, summa cum laude). Prior to this, she spent four years in the United States Army as a Russian linguist. Monica’s areas of research include international security, ethnic and religious violence, civil wars and demography.

Her recent books include: Dying by the Sword; Securing the Peace; Political Demography; and God’s Century. In addition she has published numerous scholarly articles and editorials on civil wars, territory and nationalism, demography, and religion in global politics. Monica can also be found on Twitter @monicaduffytoft. Affiliations: Monica is a research associate of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is a supernumerary fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, a Global Scholar of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Political Instability Task Force. In 2008 the Carnegie Foundation of New York named her a Carnegie Scholar for her research on religion and violence, in 2012 she was named a Fulbright scholar, and most recently served as the World Politics Fellow at Princeton University.

Accessibility Notice: We strive to make our events accessible. To request a disability accommodation and/or language services, contact the department listed in the "Contact Info." Please allow at least two weeks to arrange accommodation.

This program is presented in partnership with World Boston, the Lowell Institute, and the GBH Forum Network.

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