The Evolving Safety Regime

Abstract

The evolution of the international commercial aviation regime spans seven decades. As the industry grew from a sporadic mail service to today’s highly sophisticated means of transportation, the regime evolved from a series of separate national management schemes to one global in scope. The regime’s development has been marked by a tension between state and global level needs and goals. States have always supported and encouraged the industry because of its strategic value; however the need for global coordination intrinsic to transportation systems has been just as constant.¹ The regime has vacillated between the unilateral assertion of state authority and multinational co-operation.

Once policies have been adopted, they are pursued until a new crisis demonstrates that they are no longer feasible. States become locked in by the impact of prior choices on their domestic political structures. (Krasner, 1976: 341)