A crisis in aerial sovereignty? Considering the implications of recent military violations of national airspace

Abstract

The implementation of policies of pre‐emption and securitisation by a number of states has led to an increase in the number of aerial incursions by one state's air force into another state's territory in recent years, often occurring before and, indeed, instead of ground incursions. This paper argues that it is vital that we conceptualise territory as a three‐dimensional volume, rather than simply a flat area, in order to enable an analysis of how these events impact state sovereignty. The central contention of the paper is to extend recent work on territorial integrity and contingent sovereignty into this aerial dimension. A number of brief case studies are provided to illustrate how different incursion practices actively violate territorial integrity or render state sovereignty contingent. The conclusion seeks to answer the question of whether these incidents imply a crisis in aerial sovereignty or whether they confirm the chronic decline of this norm of international law.

Foucault and the History of Our Present

“…Considered in terms of the politics of space, an important body of work within critical geography has grappled with some of the political issues that arise from the no-fly zone, framing it as a question of 'territorial integrity', 'vertical geopolitics' and a 'crisis in aerial sovereignty' (for example, Weizman, 2002;Graham, 2004;Williams, 2007Williams, , 2010Butler, 2001;Elden, 2005;Adey, 2010). In so doing, the approach overlaps with the way the subject has been framed in international law (McIlmail, 1994;Schmitt, 1997-8) and strategic studies (Benard, 2004).…”

From U-2s to Drones: U.S. Aerial Espionage and Targeted Killing during the Cold War and the War on Terror

“…However, what are the legal consequences for "violating territorial integrity from above?" 35 Assuming that an aerial intrusion is deliberate, the victim state may be entitled to invoke its right to selfdefense. 36 Alternatively, it has been claimed that aerial trespassing in itself is insufficient to trigger United Nations Charter Article 51's right to self-defense or claims to self-defense based on customary International Law.…”

A Fiasco of Volcanic Proportions? Eyjafjallajökull and the Closure of European Airspace

“…However, so attuned has western society become to these spaces of mobility that the spaces of aerial flow are rarely the subject of academic scrutiny. Certainly, as Budd (2009) and Williams (2010) have shown, the implicit positioning of airspace in much of the extant literature on air travel and aeromobility as mere 'conduits' or 'spaces of air traffic flows' negates serious considerations of the everyday socio-spatial practices that work to (re)produce them.…”