Developing an Effective Missile Defense

Posted: May 16th, 2017

By Thomas 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.

For decades, North Korea’s continued advancements in ballistic missile technology has sustained U.S. interest in missile defense that can protect the U.S. homeland from nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is the Pentagon’s solution for targeting and destroying long-range missiles outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Though the GMD’s testing history is mixed, a test scheduled for late May will take place under the most realistic conditions yet and could finally demonstrate the GMD’s full potential. The Cipher Brief asked Tom Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at CSIS to learn more about how the GMD works, what makes it unique, and its value as a deterrent against North Korea.

The Cipher Brief: What makes GMD different than other missile defense systems?

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