Tom Karako

Director, Missile Defense Project and Senior Fellow, Defense and Security Department
Tom Karako

Thomas Karako is the director of the Missile Defense Project and a senior fellow with the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he arrived in 2014. His research focuses on national security, missile defense, nuclear deterrence, and public law. In 2010–2011, he was an American Political Science Association congressional fellow, working with the professional staff of the House Armed Services Committee and the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces on U.S. strategic forces policy, nonproliferation, and NATO. Dr. Karako received his PhD from Claremont Graduate University and his BA from the University of Dallas.

Programs & Projects

Areas of Expertise

In the News 8 of 638 results

Show More

All Tom Karako Content

Filter by

1 - 10 of 164 results

Report Launch: Project Atom 2025

Please join the Project on Nuclear Issues for a launch event for the Project Atom 2025 report on escalatory risk in the Indo-Pacific. 

Event — December 10, 2025

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Modernization

Today’s global threat landscape is accompanied by the advent of a new missile age, one defined by a surge in the global supply and demand for a broad and diverse spectrum of strike capabilities as well as the means to counter them.

Congressional Testimony by Tom Karako — October 9, 2025

MTCR Reform: What's a Missile?

Please join the CSIS Defense and Security Department for a conversation on Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) reform.

Event — September 24, 2025

Audio Briefs

The Enduring Role of Fires on the Modern Battlefield

An audio version of “⁠The Enduring Role of Fires on the Modern Battlefield⁠,” a new commentary by CSIS’s Tom Karako and Hannah Freeman. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by Tom Karako and Hannah Freeman — September 16, 2025

Audio Briefs