Dawn of Cosmopolitan Order? The New Norm of Responsibility to Defend Earth and the Planetary Council
Abstract
The unique character of planetary defense requires an adequate governance model. There is no reason to believe that the current mode of global governance based on geography, not function, is applicable to address spatially unbounded issues.
To bridge the lacking effectivity and accountability of the global system dominated by nation-states, we look to cosmopolitan and critical security theory. Following the dissemination and analysis of deficiencies of international organization and contemporary global governance, we move to describe a three-layer Planetary Council as a structure for managing planetary defense.
Our proposed structure aims to start the debate on how we organize collective efforts to ensure not simply human survival but rather all-human flourishing. The application of cosmopolitan theory aims to positively change our collective behavior as a species and develop a new norm to Defend Earth that is useful for other areas of human activity.