Page 25 - Airpower in 20th Century - Doctrines and Employment

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MassiMo de Leonardis *

Aviation and Technological Superiority
between New Conflicts and Diplomacy

he essays collected in this issue of the International review of military his-
tory/Revue internationale d’histoire militaire testify the importance of the
T subject of Airpower and the interest it raised among many of the scholars
who, through the National Commissions, belong to the International Commission of
Military History/Commission Internationale d’Histoire militaire. Some of these es-
says deal with the subject from the general point of view of the doctrines of Airpower;
others consider some specific military campaign of particular significance.
Accepting the kind invitation to write a short presentation, as Vice President of
the ICMH and Secretary General of the Italian Commission, which edits this issue,
rather than try a difficult synthesis of the various topics, I consider more oppor-
tune to dwell upon some aspects which are of specific interest for the Historians of
International Relations, as the present writer, who are particularly attentive to the
links between foreign and military policy and between diplomacy and strategy.

Aviation and Technological Superiority in the “New Conflicts”

International relations are always under «the shadow of war»: in the Westphalian
system the States, which no longer accept any superior authority (superiorem non
recognoscentes), as a means of last resort (ultima ratio regum) settle their disputes
appealing to arms; the State’s highest prerogative «is the right and duty to determine
who are the “enemies”: those against whom only there will be a legitimate war» . As
1
Raymond Aron points out, «the “diplomat” and the “soldier” are the two symbolic
figures acting on the international scene, representing the State in the two crucial
2
moments of negotiation and armed struggle» . Diplomacy has three instruments:

* Vice President ICMH, Professor of History of International Relations and Institutions and Director
of the Department of Political Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan.
1 G. Miglio, Le regolarità della politica. Scritti scelti raccolti e pubblicati dagli allievi, vol. II, Mi-
lano, 1988, pp. 766-67.
2
R. Aron, La politica, la guerra, la storia, Bologna, 1992, p. 72.