Air power was a contested military strategy during the first half of the 20th century. During World War 2, the doctrine of air power became a dominant part of US national defence contributing to the nationalisation of air space. In this paper I raise parallels between the rise of the doctrine of air power in the US during World War 2 and the concerns about national security following the attacks on September 11, 2001. The visual and spatial logics of air power generate a ‘cosmic view’ that unifies and fixes targets from the air. Yet, this articulation of nationalism is challenged by the current practices and conditions of warfare.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CosgroveD, 2001Apollo's Eye: A Cartographic Genealogy of the Earth in the Western Imagination (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, MD)
2.
CraneC, 1993Bombs, Cities, and Civilians: American Airpower Strategy in World War II (University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, KS)
3.
DeleuzeGGuattariF, 1987A Thousand Plateaus translated by MassumiB (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN)
4.
De SeverskyA P, 1942Victory Through Air Power (Simon and Schuster, New York)
5.
FoucaultM, 2003“Society Must be Defended”: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–1976 translated by MaceyD (Picador, New York)
HugillP J, 1999Global Communications Since 1844: Geopolitics and Technology (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD)
8.
KaplanC, 1996Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement (Duke University Press, Durham, NC)
9.
KeenS, 1988Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination, The Psychology of Emnity (Harper and Row, New York)
10.
KernS, 1983The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918 (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
11.
LindqvistS, 2000A History of Bombing (The New Press, New York)
12.
MacCannellD, 1976The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (Schocken Books, New York)
13.
MacphersonC B, 1962The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
14.
MelvilleH, 1995Battle-pieces and Aspects of the War: Civil War Poems [Circa 1863–64] (Da Capo Press, New York)
15.
PolanD, 1986Power and Paranoia: History, Narrative, and the American Cinema, 1940–1950 (Columbia University Press, New York)
16.
SchermanHCanfieldDCanbyH SMorleyCWhiteW A, 1942, “Preface to the Book-of-the-Month Club edition”, in Victory Through Air Power (Simon and Schuster, New York) pp xi–xiv
