WASHINGTON, DC – The Vice President announced today that Dr. Colin Kahl will serve as his new National Security Advisor, starting next week. Dr. Kahl comes to the Vice President’s office from Georgetown University, where he’s been serving as an associate professor in the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Dr. Kahl will succeed Jake Sullivan.
“I’m honored that Colin Kahl will serve as my new National Security Advisor,” said Vice President Biden. “As both a scholar and experienced public servant, Colin has a unique perspective on a number of national security issues that our country faces today, particularly in the Middle East. Colin brings a valuable understanding of American leadership at home and abroad. I welcome Colin to the team, and look forward to working closely with him.”
In addition to teaching at Georgetown, Dr. Kahl served until recently as Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. From 2009-2011, Dr. Kahl served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. In that position, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in June 2011. Dr. Kahl served at the Pentagon from 2005-2006, where he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellow in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations.
Dr. Kahl graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in political science. He earned a Ph.D in political science at Columbia University. Dr. Kahl is the author of a number of reports and publications on far-ranging issues in the Middle East.
Dr. Kahl’s formal title will be Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President.