On Thursday 29 September the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) organized a roundtable discussion with Mr. Frank A. Rose, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Space and Defense Policy at the US Department of State. In his presentation Mr. Rose elaborated on US missile defense strategy and explained why President Barack Obama has abandoned his predecessor’s plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. According to current American plans – he maintained – the NATO alliance has assumed a greater role and co-operation with Russia has been strengthened. In his view, this co-operative approach has already yielded satisfactory results and future prospects remain positive. Further to this, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Space and Defense Policy clarified that US missile defence plans are synthesized around different chronological phases and various steps are expected to take place in the next years. He also analyzed briefly US national space policy as it was introduced in June 2010 by President Obama and focused on the challenge of orbital debris stressing the importance of multilateralism and transparency. Mr. Rose finished his presentation by referring to the particular threats of Iran and North Korea and their impact on global security policy.