3 - The Shape of Things to Come

Summary

Chapter Three argues that British thinking on aviation and internationalization became radicalized in the early thirties, and remained so until the onset of the Second World War. By the start of the decade, scientific disarmament was no longer enough for internationalists. They now pushed for a more comprehensive aerial transformation of international relations. The 1932 Geneva Disarmament Conference, and internationalist organizations such as the League of Nations Union and the New Commonwealth Society, emerged as sites for the discussion and propagation of these aerial visions. Arguments about the convertibility of civilian to military aviation were used to make the case for comprehensive international control of both military and civilian aviation. In the most radical proposals existing airlines and air forces were to be transferred to the League of Nations, which was to run them and use them to ensure international peace and security. By the mid-thirties, as the fascist threat loomed large, there emerged a more muscular internationalism willing to use bombing to bolster the fledgling League order. A central argument in this chapter is that these proposals were not simply a response to the rise of German aviation or fear of bombing but instead reflected a national enthusiasm for aviation, as well as British aerial and scientific might.