A History of International Civil Aviation: From its Origins through Transformative Evolution / Edition 1

by Alan Dobson

Overview

For civil aviation to progress it has never been just about technology and business practices. To go from the rudiments of the early services that plied across short distances in Europe and America to what we experience today required most of all that politicians and policy-makers address the central problems of national sovereignty over air space and national ownership and control over airlines. Those problems have plagued the development of seamless and efficient air services for consumers in the international sphere. One would have thought that international airlines might have led the way towards a uniform globalized system given the nature of their enterprise, but that has definitely not been the case. Sovereignty and security issues have more often than not trumped commercial arguments for a more level playing field for international airlines. There has thus been an on-going tussle between sovereignty, state security and mercantilist practices on the one hand and the ambition for civil aviation to flourish on the other. As one early commentator put it:’ one is convinced that the sovereign state cannot be left without authority over what happens just above its territory, (but) … one shrinks from the idea that aerial navigation could be the object of narrow-minded restrictions.’ How those narrow-minded restrictions were gradually eroded, though still not eliminated, to enable civil aviation to flourish is at the heart of this work.

This book will be of direct interest to students of aviation, modern history, international relations and transport. It is also of value to airline industry professionals and government transport departments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138745599
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/25/2017
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alan Dobson began his career at Swansea University 1978-99 and returned as an honorary Professor in Politics and International Relations in 2014. Between 2011-14 he was an honorary professor in the School of International Relations, St. Andrews University and before that Professor of Politics at Dundee University, 1999-2011. He was a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Aeronautical Society for several years. He held a Senior Research Fellowship at the Nobel Institute, Oslo, 1997; the Lenna Fellowship St. Bonaventure University, NY, 2005; a Distinguished Visiting Research Professor Fellowship at the McBride Center for International Business Studies, Baylor University, Texas, 2008, and a Fulbright Fellowship again at Baylor in 2012. In 2014 he won the Virginia Military Institute’s Adam’s Centre annual Cold War Essay prize. He is the founder of the Transatlantic Studies Association, editor of the Journal of Transatlantic Studies and has published extensively on Anglo-American relations, economic warfare and the international airline system. His most recent books are FDR and Civil Aviation: Flying Strong, Flying Free (London & New York: Palgrave, 2011), and co-edited with Steve Marsh Anglo-American Relations: Contemporary Perspectives (London and New York, Routledge, 2012/2013).

Table of Contents

Foreword

Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Introduction: From Civil Aviation’s Origins to the Paris Convention 1919

Chapter 2. The inter-war predatory bilateral system 1919-1939

Chapter 3. Wartime Planning and The Chicago Conference 1939-44

Chapter 4. The Chicago-Bermuda Regime – its operation and the challenge of deregulation 1945-1992

Chapter 5. Creating the Single European Aviation Market

Chapter 6. Open Skies and a fully globalised world market – challenge and reality 1992-2016

Chapter 7. Conclusion: Unfinished Business?

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"The primary documents, along with the author’s years of experience make this work a valuable contribution to somewhat a diffuse body of knowledge: the book succeeds in packing many important aspects of the debates surrounding the liberalization of commercial aviation." -Guillaume de Syon, Albright College, USA

From the Publisher