Department of Defense’s Derek Chollet to join GMF

WASHINGTON–The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is pleased to announce that Derek Chollet will join GMF as counselor and senior advisor for security and defense pol

WASHINGTON–The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is pleased to announce that Derek Chollet will join GMF as counselor and senior advisor for security and defense policy in February 2015.

Since June 2012, Chollet has been the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, where he has overseen international security strategy and defense policy issues related to the nations and international organizations of Europe (including the NATO), the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. In this role, he has been a senior advisor to two secretaries of defense (Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel). 

As counselor and senior advisor for security and defense policy at GMF, he will be part of the executive management team and will have a special focus on Washington policy and programming work, as well as on security and defense policy.

“Derek’s broad experience in and out of government, together with his impressive knowledge of security and defense policy, will be enormous assets to GMF’s work in strengthening transatlantic cooperation,” said GMF President Karen Donfried. “I am delighted Derek will be joining GMF in the new year and look forward to having him as a key member of my team.”

Prior to joining the Pentagon, Chollet served at The White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council Staff. From 2009 to 2011, Chollet served in the U.S. Department of State on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Policy Planning staff. From November 2008 to January 2009, he was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.

Chollet has been a fellow at The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and the American Academy in Berlin. He has also served as a visiting scholar and adjunct professor at The George Washington University and an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University.

During the Clinton administration, he served as chief speechwriter for UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and as special adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. From 2002 to 2004, Chollet was foreign policy adviser to U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-NC), both on his legislative staff and during the 2004 Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign.

Chollet is the author, co-author or co-editor of six books on U.S. foreign policy, includingThe Road to the Dayton Accords: A Study of American Statecraft (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11, co-authored with James Goldgeier (PublicAffairs, 2008), and The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World, co-edited with Samantha Power (Public Affairs, 2011). His commentaries and reviews on U.S. foreign policy and politics have appeared in many other books and publications. Chollet was educated at Cornell and Columbia.