Special Events Lecture

General Martin Dempsey

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Alliances, Revanchism, and Supply Chains: Inevitable Competition or Inevitable Conflict?

Over the last decade, the U.S., China, and Russia have taken very different approaches to their national security which include both promises of cooperation and threats of conflict with each other. General Martin Dempsey will discuss how their different approaches have created tension among these global actors and suggest where they may result in either competition or conflict.


General Martin Dempsey was the 37th Chief of Staff of the Army and the 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He graduated from the US Military Academy in 1974. Following 41 years of military service deployed at home and abroad, he now teaches leadership at Duke University and consults for the National Basketball Association on leader development and social responsibility. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of U.S.A. Basketball, the national governing body for all of our country’s international basketball competition. He is a best-selling author, a highly decorated soldier, and among other foreign awards, a Knight of the British Empire. He and his high school sweetheart, Deanie, have been married for 49 years and live in Wake Forest, North Carolina. They have three children—each of whom served in the Army—and nine grandchildren.