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.

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The Arsenal of Freedom Tour

Please join the CSIS Defense and Security Department for a conversation on the Secretary of War’s Arsenal of Freedom tour.

Event — January 22, 2026

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