Dr. Phillip A. Karber is a national-security strategist, scholar, former U.S. Marine, business executive, and longtime adviser to senior American and allied officials. Over a career spanning more than five decades, he has worked at the intersection of military strategy, arms control, international security, technology, government, and private industry.
A native Californian, Karber was adopted from an orphanage in Hollywood and grew up in the High Sierras, where he developed a lifelong passion for the outdoors and equestrian sports. He became an Eagle Scout at an unusually young age and went on to graduate from Pepperdine University with a degree in political science. He earned his Ph.D. in international law from Georgetown University and later completed advanced programs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Karber began his professional career as an on-camera television reporter for a CBS affiliate before entering military and government service. A former U.S. Marine, he was brought to Washington by Admiral Arleigh Burke to serve on the staff of the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. During the early 1970s, he worked on nuclear strategy and defense issues and participated in studies concerning U.S. strategic capabilities. In 1974, he was named director of National Security Study Memorandum 186, a presidentially mandated interagency assessment of U.S. and Soviet multipurpose forces.
In 1981, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger recruited Karber to serve as a strategy adviser to the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His responsibilities included major strategic assessments and exercises, among them the Strategic Crisis Decisionmaking Center and the Proud Prophet war game. He subsequently taught strategy at the National War College during the 1982–83 academic year.
Throughout the Cold War and its aftermath, Karber held a series of government and advisory positions involving arms control, defense strategy, and national-security decision-making. He advised the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, testified before Congress and allied parliamentary committees, and undertook sensitive assignments for senior U.S. officials. Internationally, he advised British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and NATO Secretary General Manfred Wörner and worked with other senior allied leaders.
At the end of the Cold War, Karber led or participated in specialized U.S. government initiatives involving Soviet military technology, the organization and training of the Free Kuwait Army during Operation Desert Storm, and interviews with senior Soviet generals concerning Cold War military planning. Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci later appointed him to the U.S. delegation for Quadripartite discussions on security in Asia involving the United States, Russia, China, and Japan.
His work also extended to China. Karber lectured on competitive strategy at the People's Liberation Army Defense University and spent several years demonstrating transponder-based air-traffic-control technology throughout China under U.S. Department of Defense direction. His research has included Chinese military modernization, strategic forces, and military technology.
In private industry, Karber became a senior executive of BDM Corporation, an international engineering and technology-services firm. As Group Vice President and head of its International Division, he oversaw approximately 6,000 employees operating in more than 20 countries. From 1997 to 2004, he served as Chairman of the Board of JFK International Air Terminal during its major privatization and reconstruction project.
Karber has maintained a parallel academic career at Georgetown University, where he joined the adjunct faculty in 1978. Over the years, he has taught military strategy, international security, national-security decision-making, Chinese and Russian military thought, and related subjects. He has also lectured at senior military institutions in the United States and abroad.
In 1988, Karber helped establish The Potomac Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization devoted to national-security research. He became its third president in 2012. The foundation has emphasized field-based research and direct observation of conflicts, complementing traditional policy analysis with firsthand examination of military operations and security environments.
Ukraine has been a major focus of Karber's later career. Beginning in 2014, at the invitation of the Ukrainian government, he made repeated visits to Ukraine and spent extensive periods with Ukrainian forces on the front lines. His observations and reports have been presented to senior U.S. and NATO officials, the Pentagon, the State Department, the National Security Council, and congressional committees. Together with General Wesley Clark, he presented early assessments of the war to Congress and subsequently became a prominent analyst of Russian military operations and what came to be described as "New Generation Warfare."
Karber's work on Ukraine has continued through the subsequent stages of the conflict. He has briefed military and civilian leaders in the United States and Europe and has focused on battlefield developments, military technology, force requirements, and the strategic implications of the war for Ukraine, the United States, and NATO.
His writings have appeared in books, journals, and monographs dealing with national security, military strategy, terrorism, arms control, and Russian and Chinese military thought. He has contributed to numerous books and authored dozens of articles and studies.
Away from government, academia, and defense, Karber has maintained a lifelong commitment to equestrian sport. An accomplished polo player, he has been associated with national championship teams, served as a Governor of the U.S. Polo Association, and was a trustee of the Great Meadow steeplechase. For approximately a decade, he captained the "Horse Marines" polo team, whose veteran players raised funds to support therapeutic riding programs for wounded service members.
Based in Great Falls, Virginia, Dr. Karber's career has encompassed military service, national-security strategy, academia, international business, diplomacy, and firsthand field research. From the halls of Congress and the Pentagon to corporate boardrooms, military academies, diplomatic capitals, and front-line battlefields, his work has been defined by direct engagement with some of the most consequential security challenges of the modern era.