This chapter draws a parallel between past defense pacts and a possible future planetary defense treaty regulating NEO deflection. Drafting a planetary defense treaty is compared to creating a defense pact. The data concerning the defense pacts offer insights in regard to the following questions: firstly, when it is the right time to establish legal framework for international cooperation; secondly, how to ensure that all the participating nations will contribute the same efforts and resources to the common defense project; thirdly, how the decision making should be regulated; and fourthly, how to safeguard that the outcomes of the project, e.g. in the form of advanced military technology, shall not be misused for the benefit of leading nation(s) and for the detriment of others. The chapter quantitatively investigates selected defense pacts concluded among nations between 1815 and 2003 and qualitatively examines five current defense pacts. It first evaluates the correlation between threat proximity and pact conclusion. The chapter then inquires what the actual wording of five current pacts is, i.e. whether it intends to prescribe same contributions of participants (freeriding prevention), whether it prohibits misusing the cooperation (abuse prevention) and how it regulates common capabilities development and decision-making.
Detail