Hope, Global Stability, and the Role of the U.S.

Experience the Event

Presented by The Office of the President

As the United States and the globe face a myriad of complex foreign policy, economic and security challenges, where do we find opportunities to create a more just and peaceful world? On October 10, 2025, General (Ret.) Martin Dempsey joined University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., for “Hope, Global Stability, and the Role of the United States,” as part of the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum on Cultivating Hope. Hear Dempsey discuss his experiences as the senior leader of the United States Military, an award-winning author, and a professor of leadership and offer insights about the importance of creating a culture of hope and the powerful role of hope in leadership.

“There is a very definite relationship between hope and trust, and in the military—and I think in most walks of life, actually—the success of leadership is in building trust among those entrusted to our care,” Dempsey said. “Hope and trust, in terms of leadership, are inseparable.”

Since its establishment in 2005, each year the Notre Dame Forum invites campus-wide dialogue about issues of importance to the University, the nation, and the larger world.

This year’s theme is Cultivating Hope. In a world where hope is too often in short supply, our goal is to invite reflection about how each of us can be “seekers of truth, sustainers of hope, and builders of bridges.”

To learn more about the Notre Dame Forum 2025-26, please visit the Forum website.

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Meet the Speaker: President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.

In December 2023, the University’s Board of Trustees elected Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., as Notre Dame’s 18th president, effective June 1, 2024. He also serves as professor of political science. Prior to serving as president, he was vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives.

In his role as vice president and associate provost, he oversaw the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, iNDustry Labs, the Institute for Educational Initiatives, the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, the McGrath Institute for Church Life, the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center, the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, the ROTC programs, and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. He also directed the approval and review process of institutes and centers more generally.

Father Dowd was previously an assistant provost for internationalization with Notre Dame International, where his primary responsibilities included leadership of the Dublin Global Gateway, Kylemore Abbey Global Centre, and the São Paulo Global Center along with planning for future engagement with Africa.

The author of the book Christianity, Islam, and Liberal Democracy: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa, Father Dowd focuses his research on African politics, ethnic politics, and the relationship between religion, political institutions, national identity, and human development. His current research explores religion and the integration of migrants/refugees in Europe and North America and the effects of faith-based schools on citizenship and civic engagement in Africa.

He is the founder of Notre Dame’s Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity and a fellow of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies in the University’s Keough School of Global Affairs.

A Notre Dame alum, Father Dowd earned an M.Div. from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and was ordained a Holy Cross priest in 1994. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

Meet the Speaker: Gen. Martin Dempsey

Gen. (Ret.) Martin Dempsey served as 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2011 until his retirement in September 2015. Prior to that role, he served as the U.S. Army’s 37th chief of staff.

A 1974 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Dempsey was a career Army officer whose assignments took him around the world during times of both war and peace. His military career began as a company-grade armory officer serving in Europe, and then took an unusual turn when he spent two years at Duke University earning a master’s degree in English, and later three years at West Point as an assistant professor of English. He has been known to quote Yeats and Shakespeare in his speeches, and he said his five years in academia made him “a clearer thinker, a better communicator.”

Before becoming the Army chief of staff, he served as deputy commander and then acting commander of U.S. Central Command and led U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

Dempsey’s many awards and decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Bronze Star with “V” device and Oak Leaf Cluster. In 2016, Dempsey was named an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The grandson of four Irish immigrants, he is also a member of the Irish America Hall of Fame.

In addition to a master’s degree in English, he holds master’s degrees in military art and national security studies.

Following 41 years of military service, he now teaches leadership at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and consults for the National Basketball Association on leader development and social responsibility. Since 2016, Dempsey has also served as the chairman of the board of directors of USA Basketball, the national governing body for all of the United States’ international basketball competitions, men’s and women’s, 5×5 and 3×3, from ages 16 through the Olympics.

Dempsey is the co-author, with Ori Brafman, of the bestselling leadership book “Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership” and author of “No Time For Spectators: The Lessons that Mattered Most from West Point to the West Wing.”

Dempsey received an honorary degree and served as principal commencement speaker at Notre Dame’s 2016 Commencement in recognition of his “steady leadership for our nation’s armed forces in times of war and through periods of dramatic change … known for his wisdom imparted with candor, and his deep appreciation for the men and women under his charge; he cherished those who gave the ultimate sacrifice by adhering to a simple three-word phrase, ‘Make it matter.’”

He and his high school sweetheart, Deanie, have been married for 49 years. They have three children — each of whom served in the Army — and nine grandchildren.