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Present global situation "overwhelming": Richard Verma in inaugural Lehigh University Lecture
Verma underscored the complexity and urgency of the recent international challenges while calling for renewed civic engagement and global cooperation.
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Malvika Choudhary - Sat, 19, Apr 2025
- 15:43 EDT
- 166
Richard Verma ’90 discussed global challenges and opportunities during the Presidential Distinguished Fellow Lecture on April 15. / Lehigh University
Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma described the current global landscape as “overwhelming” at Lehigh University on April 15.
Delivering the inaugural Presidential Distinguished Fellow Lecture at Zoellner Arts Center’s Baker Hall, Verma reflected on rising global instability, technological upheaval, and climate disruption and underscored the need for renewed civic engagement and global cooperation.
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“How to make sense of it all can be a bit overwhelming at times,” Verma said. “It was indeed the best of times, and yet, for too many, it was the worst of times. And this is perhaps the conundrum and the complex nature of the world that we are living in today.”
Drawing on his career in diplomacy, national security, and the private sector, Verma highlighted “problems without passports” — global issues such as pandemics, climate change, and technological disruption — that defy borders and demand multilateral solutions. These challenges, he warned, are straining governments’ ability to deliver, fueling public discontent and weakening democratic institutions.
“All of these factors place added pressures on governments to deliver and most simply can’t,” he said. “Which leads to an erosion of confidence in democratic governance and institutions.”
Despite the challenges, Verma pointed to hopeful global trends: improved health indicators, higher literacy, reduced child mortality, and expanding democratic participation. He emphasized that even amid geopolitical tensions and disinformation, people-to-people connections and shared values remain the “connective tissue” of global engagement.
“The people-to-people contacts that you make, the friendships and relationships you build, the values you share… this will be the glue that holds us together,” Verma said.
Verma also shared insights from his time in the State Department, where he managed a $60 billion budget and oversaw 80,000 personnel, traveling to nearly 60 countries and over 75 U.S. diplomatic posts. He described the experience as a window into both the complexity and the promise of the modern world.
Looking ahead, he urged the audience to recognize their role in global engagement. “You actually are practicing foreign policy whether you realize it or not,” Verma said. “By traveling, trading, studying or visiting abroad—you are shaping the perception and reality of America in the world.”
As part of his six-month fellowship, Verma will continue engaging with students and faculty at Lehigh, host programs in New York and Washington, D.C., and contribute to campus dialogue on pressing national and international issues.
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