No Fly Zones and International Security Politics and Strategy

This book discusses the practice of no-fly zones in international affairs. The first no-fly zone was imposed over northern Iraq immediately after the first Gulf War, and since then they have become a regular recourse for policymakers confronted with humanitarian crises. They have come to be viewed as a feasible, essentially non-violent form of intervention that can be performed entirely from the air in a situation where some form of action is widely thought to be necessary but the political will for a ground operation is insufficient. Nonetheless, even among policy makers there is limited understanding of the requirements, the shortcomings and the potentialities of no-fly zones. This is the first comprehensive work on this topic, and examines the assumptions surrounding no-fly zones by focusing on issues such as authority, cost, possibility of escalation and effectiveness. Looking back at 25 years of experience with no-fly zones, the book’s goal is to look at what historical lessons may be drawn and to make some predictions with regard to the politics and strategy of no-fly zones in the future. This book will be of much interest to students of air power, security studies, Middle Eastern Studies and IR in general

1. About No-fly Zones 2. Iraq: Operations Northern Watch and Southern Watch 3. Bosnia: Operations Sky Monitor and Deny Flight 4. Libya: Operation Odyssey Dawn 5. The Politics and Prospects for No-Fly Zones

Stephen Wrage has been a professor of American foreign policy at the US Naval Academy for many years and has written widely on national security affairs. Scott Cooper is a retired lieutenant colonel and has flown hundreds of no-fly zone enforcement missions and completed seven deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.