Commissioner Bio
Colin F. Jackson
Dr. Colin F. Jackson serves as the Republican co-chair of the Afghanistan War Commission. Jackson previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia from 2017-2019, overseeing all strategy, security cooperation, budget oversight, and contingency planning. He also served as the senior DOD representative to the U.S.-Taliban peace talks. From 2006-2017, he was a Professor in the Strategy Department and later Director of the Advanced Strategist Program at the Naval War College. He also taught strategy and counterinsurgency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University. In 2011, he deployed to Afghanistan as Executive Officer for Policy Planning for the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations USFOR-A. Since 2019, Dr. Jackson has served as the Chairman for the Strategic and Operational Research Department at the Naval War College. Prior to entering academia, he worked in private sector financial trading and power development.