President Joe Biden has nominated him to be the incoming administration’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
The Position: principal staff assistant and adviser to both the Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense for all matters concerning the formation of national security and defense policy.
Colin Hackett Kahl was born in Michigan.
He is a 1989 graduate of John F. Kennedy High School in Richmond, California.
Kahl earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1993 and a PhD in political science from Columbia University in 2000.
His doctoral thesis was entitled States, scarcity, and civil strife in the developing world [Kenya].
From 1997 to 1998, Kahl was a National Security Fellow at Harvard University.
From 2009 to 2011, Kahl was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East.
Kahl was also a professor at the University of Minnesota.
From 2005 to 2006, he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.
In May 2018, it was revealed that aides to U.S. President Donald Trump had contracted with Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube to attempt to discredit through incriminating or embarrassing information Kahl and his wife, as well as former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes.
In November 2020, Kahl was named a member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the National Security Council.