doi:10.7916/bmcq-0k64Oral history interview with Derek Chollet, 2022Chollet, Derek Horal historiesmixed materialPresidents--United StatesArab Spring, 2010-United States Foreign relations AfghanistanUnited States Foreign relations PakistanUnited States Foreign relations AsiaUnited States Foreign relationsLibya History Civil War, 2011-Syria History Civil War, 2011-Crimea (Ukraine) Annexation to Russia (Federation)Chollet, Derek HObama, BarackNational Security Council (U.S.)Columbia University FacultyUnited States. Department of StateDerek Chollet discusses his contribution to the foreign policy of the Obama administration, in which he served as State Department deputy director of policy planning from 2009 to 2011, special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council (NSC) staff from 2011 to 2012, and U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 2012 to 2015. Chollet outlines the responsibilities of each of his positions, and describes his efforts to reform and expand the capacity of the interagency bureaucracy to effectively advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. He speaks broadly about the range of major foreign policy events and initiatives with which he was closely involved throughout the period of his service, providing details about the Afghanistan strategy review and development of the administration's integrated policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan; the State Department's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review; the administration's Asia rebalance, in which state resources and attention were redirected from the Middle East to the Asia Pacific region; Obama's major introductory foreign policy speeches in 2009; the Arab Spring; the administration's internal deliberations about the possibility of military intervention in Libya and Syria; the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons; and the Russian annexation of Crimea. Also discussed are Chollet's impressions of Obama and Hillary Clinton's visions of the role of the United States in the international system, the difficulty of balancing both pursuing the administration's affirmative policy agenda and responding to urgent crises, Clinton's emphasis on interactions with ordinary people and engagement with civil society organizations, and the professional networks of foreign policy experts and operatives of which Chollet was part prior to the Obama presidency