A crisis in aerial sovereignty? Considering the implications of recent military violations of national airspace Alison J Williams School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle uponTyne NE1 7RU Email: alison.williams1@newcastle.ac.uk Revised manuscript received 18 March 2009 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. Key words: airspace, territorial integrity, contingent sovereignty, security, airpower Introduction On 2 May 2008 the Turkish Air Force launched a number of bombers to strike Kurdish positions across the border in northern Iraq. Turkey reported that all its planes returned safely, whilst a local Iraqi television station reported that a number of villages in the Pishdar district had been bombed without causing casualties (BBC News 2008d). In the summer of 2006 Israel launched a 34-day campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, utilising its air force to bomb Beirut before sending ground forces across its border (BBC News 2006). Israel has since carried out a number of mock raids aimed, it says, to prevent Hezbollah rearming and threatening Israel (BBC News 2007c). Further- more, Israeli jets continue to be involved in a long- running campaign of air strikes against Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (BBC News 2008b; see also Weizman 2002 2007). On 21 April 2008 Georgian authorities accused the Russian mili- tary of shooting down an unarmed Georgian drone flying over the disputed region of Abkhazia (BBC News 2008c). US military aircraft have been involved in a number of incursions, striking and killing militants in Somalia, and perhaps most seriously (in terms of its ramifications for US international relations) attacking supposed Al Qaeda strongholds in northern Pakistan (BBC News 2008f 2008g). And, in February 2008 Russia was accused by Japan of violating its airspace over the Izu islands (BBC News 2008a). These examples are illustrative of the recent proliferation of incidents in which military aircraft have violated the aerial sovereignty of another state, often with lethal consequences. Under international law a state’s sovereignty expands to encompass the totality of its horizontal territorial extent stretching between its internationally recognised boundaries. National airspace extends horizontally between the international land or mari- time boundaries of every state, and vertically from the ground to the limits of the atmosphere (see FAI 2004; NASA 2005). Recognising this from a political Area (2010) 42.1, 51–59 doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2009.00896.x Area Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 51–59, 2010 ISSN 0004-0894 © 2009 The Author. Journal compilation © Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) 2009