As undersecretary of defense for policy, Colin Kahl is one of the Biden administration’s senior most policymakers, tasked with formulating and coordinating the White House’s national security strategy.
In an hour-long interview on FP Live, Kahl told FP’s Ravi Agrawal that the Pentagon is working “24/7” to understand the scope and scale of the recent leaks, and to make sure it never happens again.
On Ukraine, Kahl pushed back against criticisms that the Biden administration has slow-rolled aid to Ukraine. “We are all in,” he said, adding that “Russia has already lost, by every measure.”
On China, “the reality is that Beijing is not picking up the phone when we’re calling them,” said Kahl. And on Taiwan, he explained how the Pentagon thinks about deterrence: “It’s important that the Chinese leadership wakes up every single day and says ‘today is not the day’ to launch an invasion across the Taiwan Strait … or to engage in other aggression that could threaten the rules-based international order.”
For more, watch the full discussion on video or read a lightly edited and condensed transcript, exclusive to FP Insiders.
Video clips from this event
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The Pentagon’s top policymaker, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is looking into ways to make the DoD safer after leaked documents surfaced.
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Watch DoD’s Colin Kahl explain why Russia and President Vladimir Putin have already lost the war in Ukraine.
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One of Biden’s top policymakers, Colin Kahl: U.S. outreach to China is largely ignored by PRC
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Colin Kahl explains why the Biden administration is not sending F-16s now and responds to the argument it has supported Ukraine only incrementally and isn’t doing enough.
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The Department of Defense’s top policymaker says the United States is not in a good place when it comes to Iran.
