Derek Chollet has been nominated to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Department of Defense.
Chollet has served as the Counselor of the U.S. Department of State since January 2021.
He has previously held positions at the State Department, White House, and the Department of Defense, including as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council staff, and Principal Deputy Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. During the Clinton Administration, Chollet served as Chief Speechwriter for UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and as Special Adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.
Outside of government, Chollet has held a variety of positions at leading research institutions. From 2016 to 2020, he served as Executive Vice President at The German Marshall Fund of the United States. He has also been a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, the Center for a New American Security, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, and the American Academy in Berlin. Earlier in his career, Chollet assisted former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher, as well as Holbrooke and Talbott, with the research and writing of their memoirs.
He is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of eight books on U.S. foreign policy, and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the U.S. Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service and the U.S. Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. A graduate of Cornell, Chollet was raised in Lincoln, Nebraska.
