Planetary Defense

Planetary defense from near-Earth objects such as asteroids is a far more nuanced and challenging topic than it might seem. Each day, technology is making it easier to detect asteroid impact threats in advance, but at present, there is still no easy way to design and implement any form of global defense. This book examines how various asteroid deflection methods can change global political affairs. The authors believe that the final policy for potential Earth impacts should be based on practical engineering solutions and innovative architectural structures, while at the same time reflecting the most recent political science contributions in ethical security studies and security cosmopolitanism. Their focus is not limited to effective engineering solutions, but rather extends to how such proposals resonate in possible political structures of the future. Planetary defense cannot be achieved with technology alone; the chapters in this volume highlight the issues that arise when space science and technology intersect with political science. This complex interdisciplinary project not only demands global participation and collaboration, but also proposes the way we can achieve it. The authors explore various concepts of governance and their far-reaching implications for planetary defense and vice versa—how scientific progress in Solar System observations and asteroid collision engineering influence political science and put pressure on the international legal framework. The text is intentionally written for a diverse scholarly and diplomatic audience in a style accessible to non-specialists and practitioners and can be read by those across diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

Impacts by asteroids or comets on Earth may lead to natural disasters of catastrophic dimensions. This book addresses legal and policy aspects of ‘planetary defence’ activities by space agencies and other actors aiming at the prediction and mitigation of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

Offers a look at defending the planet in the event of an extra-terrestrial invasion.

Proceedings of the 49th Session of the International Seminars on Nuclear War and Planetary Emergencies held in Erice, Sicily. This Seminar has again gathered, in 2016, over one hundred scientists from 43 countries in an interdisciplinary effort that has been going on for the last 33 years, to examine and analyze planetary problems which had been followed up, all year long, by the World Federation of Scientists' Permanent Monitoring Panels.

The ecology of international security / Charles D. Ferguson. Assessment of RDD event medical response, recovery, and mitigation in a world of one science / Annette Sobel. Defeating religious terrorism - what will it take? / Pervez Hoodbhoy. Terrorism threats due to weapons of mass disturbance / Friedrich Steinhausler. Cell phones, texting, position reporting, and self-assembly in emergency response management / Robert V. Duncan -- 10. Special session : lectio magistralis. Why science is needed in everyday life / Ignazio La Russa -- 11. Climate. Focus : data, mathematical structures and predictions. Carbon dioxide, friend or foe. William Happer. Climate sensitivity : various approaches / Richard S. Lindzen. Climategate and the inquiries / Stephen McIntyre. Energy legislation in the USA / Richard Wilson -- 12. WFS general meeting. PMP reports - debate and conclusions. Permanent monitoring panel on motivations for terrorism / Lord John Alderdice. 2010 progress report of the MCD-2/7 project and 2011 research project. East-Africa AIDS Research Centre at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), Entebbe Uganda / Franco M. Buonaguro. Mother and child health PMP : maternal and child mortality is a planetary emergency, report of 2010 activities / Nathalie Charpak, J.G. Ruiz and S.D. Leon-Mendoza. Permanent monitoring panel report on limits of development / Christopher D. Ellis. Pollution permanent monitoring panel - 2010 annual report / Lorne G. Everett. Report of the energy permanent monitoring panel / William Fulkerson, J, Ongena and C. Difiglio. PMP report for cosmic objects / Walter F. Huebner. Annual report permanent monitoring panel on mitigation of terrorist acts / Alan Leigh Moore, Jr. Information security PMP report / Henning Wegener and Jody R. Westby -- 13. Seminar participants -- 14. Ettore Majorana Erice Science for Peace Prize

The Oxford Handbook of Space Security focuses on the interaction between space technology and international and national security processes. Saadia M. Pekkanen and P.J. Blount have gathered a group of key scholars who bring a range of analytical and theoretical perspectives to take an analytically-eclectic approach to assessing space security from an international relations (IR) theory perspective. Bringing together scholarship from a group of leading experts, this volume explains how these contemporary changes will affect future security in, from, and through space.

This is the 42nd volume in the Occasional Paper series of the U.S. Air Force Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). This volume presents two important papers on United States military space. The first paper, "What is Spacepower and Does It Constitute a Revolution in Military Affairs?", examines the concept of "spacepower" as it is emerging within the U.S. military and business sectors to establish the basis for military space roles and implications. It also posits military-commercial sector linkages as the best near-term road map for future development. As commercial activities expand the importance of United States space, and as technological advances enable military missions, Hays sees expanded military roles, including space weaponization, on the horizon. He concludes that military space has already had a significant impact on the American way of war. That trend will only continue as the promise of a true space-led revolution in military affairs awaits eventual space weaponization. Given an increasingly important U.S. commercial and military presence in space, the second paper, "Space-Related Arms Control and Regulation to 2015: Precedents and Prospects," presents a detailed analysis of existing regulations and controls that constrain and shape military space use and development. It also presents a comprehensive examination of current and future issues that will define likely arenas of international efforts to further control military space. The United States must be very aware of the possible consequences for its overall commercial and military space efforts in addressing these issues. Finally, the paper suggests areas where some current regulatory emphasis could benefit the United States, indicating areas for current policy emphasis. Together, the two papers provide a timely and important examination of the current state and the likely future of United States military space.