The Politics of International Aviation by Eugene Sochor

Abstract

960 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE The authors conclude that the major contribution of strategic bombing had been the attrition of Luftwaffe fighters and that the campaign for aerial superiority ranks in importance with such battles as Midway, Britain, and Stalingrad in the turn of the tide in World War II. To Command the Sky is a compelling book, clearly written and convincingly argued using both American and German sources. The authors discuss such topics as fighter technology and its relationship to the outcome of the aerial encounters and the roles of the men engaged, from commanders to fighter aces and bomber crews, with equal aplomb. To Command the Sky, which includes an informative bibliographical essay, should be must reading for anyone interested in the air war of World War II. John H. Morrow, Jr. Dr. Morrow is professor of history at the University of Georgia. The Politics of International Aviation. By Eugene Sochor. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991. Pp. xix + 288; notes, appendixes, bibliography, index. $36.00. This timely book provides instructive insight into the relationship between technology and the larger historical process in which it is embedded. Under the impact of globalization, deregulation, Third World unrest, never-ending technological change, and constantly shifting political and economic realities, the system of rules, regula­ tions, and administrative structures governing international passen­ ger flight has become increasingly anachronistic. That system, now almost half a century old, was established by the Chicago Convention of 1944 and has been subsequently modified to only a limited degree by piecemeal annexes and amendments. Its dominant note is bilater­ alism, based on Article I of the agreement reached in Chicago after what Eugene Sochor characterizes as a “classic power struggle” between nations fiercely determined to protect their own individual interests: “The contracting States recognize that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its terri­ tory” (p. 266). Because of this apparently unalterable premise, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), with which Sochor’s book is largely concerned, faces mounting problems as it seeks to cope with burgeoning traffic, shrinking safety margins, crowded airports, cease­ less technological innovations, ever-changing forms of terrorism, and an increasingly confusing jurisdictional maze of conflicting national and supranational entities. In a few brief sentences, Sochor neatly underscores the awesome challenges confronting a small group of devoted but largely hamstrung officials who must wrestle with a real-life version of “Mission Impossible.” The International Civil TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 961 Aviation Organization “has only limited authority,” he writes in a masterpiece of understatement. “It sets standards but cannot enforce them. It devises solutions but cannot impose them. It has drafted conventions but is powerless to deal with states that fail to live up to their provisions. To implement its rules ICAO must rely on the goodwill of states rather than legal requirements ... it is not allowed to exercise any kind of regulatory authority in the field of economics which remains the sole prerogative of sovereign states” (p. 222). Considering the overwhelming obstacles ICAO faces, its record of accomplishment, as traced by Sochor in a series of chapters dealing with its origins and development, is nothing short of remarkable. The first few chapters set the stage by discussing the political conflicts that attended the birth of ICAO and outlining major technological changes that have transformed commercial aviation since the organi­ zation’s inception. Sochor then explains how ICAO has evolved within the basic structure of the United Nations, established workable decision-making processes in the face of political and military pres­ sures, and attempted to meet the needs of poor and developing nations despite being dominated by representatives of the world’s major powers. Moving to specific problem areas, later chapter*’ shew how ICAO has tried to deal with skyjacking and other forms of terrorism, to maximize safety as air routes have proliferated, abd to deal with the conflicting interests of such chronically opposed do en­ tries as North and South Korea, Greece and Turkey, Pakistan nd India, Israel and its Arab neighbors, and the major proiagbblsts in the recently concluded Cold War. Surveying a series cd irfdhbdual crises, Sochor explains how ICAO has functioned wiien...