Abstract
The following paper examines planetary defense from the perspective of astronomy, which describe scientifically the global nature of the asteroid threat through direct sky observations, technology, which offers concrete solutions of asteroid deflections, international law, which studies within what legal frames planetary defense and asteroid mining is a feasible effort, and finally political science that explores the normative perception of the whole planetary defense endeavor. The aim of this article is to describe the dynamic between an overtly positivist threat formulation and normative implications of different ways of addressing the threat.
Beside planetary defense efforts, it is crucial to focus on industrial capacities useful for asteroid mining because that would lead to a loud voice on international level in discussing future space mining regime. From the theoretical point of view, the topics are interlinked via the cosmopolitan theory of international politics and Welsh School of Critical Security Studies.
All these theoretical perspectives accentuate positive security, therefore, potential scientific and industrial capacities of the Czech Republic in the field of asteroid mining and planetary defense are portrayed as humanistic and globally responsible solutions to the asteroid threat. Finally, we argue that proper identification of local research and industrial capacities are not necessarily only useful for scientific and economical interests of a small state but can be used as a foreign policy leverage to prevent super power from usurping the global debate.