International Cooperation and Collaboration in Planetary Defense Efforts

Abstract

This chapter seeks to highlight the various activities that are now ongoing around the world in the planetary defense arena – broadly defined. This chapter also seeks to address key problems and challenges related to future planetary defense and how emerging patterns of collaboration in these areas are evolving in a positive way. In some cases entirely new models of cooperation across a number of diverse technical fields are emerging. Some of these levels of cooperation involve colleges, universities, foundations, and research institutes. Other collaborative links involve corporations, governmental agencies, and even concerned nongovernmental organizations and foundations such as the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the Safeguard Foundation, and the B612 Foundation. The United Nations has also begun to build effective new collaborative programs. These UN programs are addressed in a separate chapter. In short, much, much more remains to be done, but serious new efforts to collaborate in this daunting field are indeed underway.

In addition to reviewing patterns of international cooperation, this chapter also examines some of the national and regional programs of countries that are most active in this area.