The international politics of air disasters: lessons for aviation disaster governance from Asia, 2014–2015

Abstract

Through a qualitative analysis of three air disasters from Asia in recent years—MH370, MH17 and QZ8501—this article investigates the puzzle of how aviation disasters open up a sovereign state’s domestic governance and foreign policy to international questioning within an anarchic international system. This enquiry thereby highlights the gaps in the global governance of aviation, particularly in the areas of safety and recovery in the wake of aviation disasters. Three linked literatures demonstrate this dynamic. First, aligned with the ‘emotional turn’ in international relations, we show that the portrayal of air disasters and grieving next of kin in global media highlights the politics of grief and trauma. Second, aviation disasters surface the politics of disaster diplomacy in the guise of ‘security competition by proxy’ in the recovery process. Third, we emphasize that these shortfalls in domestic governance and international cooperation demonstrated by the attention-grabbing spectacle of aviation disasters consequently underscore important knowledge, norms and compliance gaps in global aviation governance. Aviation disasters and their aftermath thus shine an international spotlight on the state’s domestic governance and foreign policies in these three manners.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Olivier Grouille, Maha Rafi Atal, Adam B. Lerner and the anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on improving this article. Thanks are also due to Lee Xiao Wen for proofreading. All remaining errors, if any, are the responsibility of the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Chong

Alan Chong is an Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He has published widely on the notion of soft power and the role of ideas in constructing the international relations of Singapore and Asia. His publications have appeared in International Relations of the Asia-Pacific; Review of International Studies; Alternatives: Global, Local, Political;Armed Forces and Society; Journal of Strategic Studies; and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. He is also the author of Foreign Policy in Global Information Space: Actualizing Soft Power (Palgrave, 2007). Email: [email protected]Jun Yan Chang is an Associate Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University and also a PhD candidate at the School of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Queensland. He has published in various academic journals. Prior to joining RSIS, he was a combat officer in the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). Email: [email protected]

Jun Yan Chang

Alan Chong is an Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He has published widely on the notion of soft power and the role of ideas in constructing the international relations of Singapore and Asia. His publications have appeared in International Relations of the Asia-Pacific; Review of International Studies; Alternatives: Global, Local, Political;Armed Forces and Society; Journal of Strategic Studies; and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. He is also the author of Foreign Policy in Global Information Space: Actualizing Soft Power (Palgrave, 2007). Email: [email protected]Jun Yan Chang is an Associate Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University and also a PhD candidate at the School of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Queensland. He has published in various academic journals. Prior to joining RSIS, he was a combat officer in the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). Email: [email protected]