Holding Patterns: Air Transport and Foreign Policy in the Netherlands

In the organization of international air transport, politics take priority over law. This book depicts the important historical role of Dutch diplomacy in the development of KLM as a world air carrier. Read the interviews with Marc Dierikx here and here. Although air transport is indispensable to modern society, we know little about the diplomatic efforts that establish airline services. Nonetheless, aviation features prominently in the spectrum of international relations: in conflicts between states, for example, the suspension of landing rights is one of the first acts to symbolize serious discord. In tracing the unique cooperation between government and industry, this historical study underscores aviation as a prominent, but understudied topic in Dutch foreign relations.