‘Aviation Will Either Destroy or Save Our Civilization’: Proposals for the International Control of Aviation, 1920—45

Abstract

Proposals for the internationalization of civil aviation and the formation of an international air force blossomed in Britain, France and the United States between 1920 and 1945. The proposals were promoted by liberal internationalist constituencies in these three countries and reveal an enthusiasm for technocracy and technology within liberal internationalism. Aviation, internationalists argued, was too dangerous and held too much potential to be left in the hands of warring nations. It should instead be controlled by an international organization for the benefit of international peace and prosperity. Proposals were linked to the League of Nations in the interwar period and to the proposed United Nations Organization during the second world war. They were discussed at the 1932 League of Nations Geneva disarmament conference, and in 1944, at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference and the Chicago conference on international civil aviation.