Aviation technogeopolitics and the materialisation of the Pacific as United States space, 1918-1941

• Main Author: Williams, Alison Jean
• Published: University of Hull 2005
• Subjects: 327.9730164; Geography
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.431055

This thesis develops a new concept - the 'technogeopolitical project' - that analyses the processes and mechanisms through which the existence of the recursive relationship between a chosen technology and geopolitics can be understood. The chosen case study is the US Government's desire to materialise the Pacific as US space during the interwar period. Several processes and mechanisms are analysed and discussed under the auspices of this 'project'. They include the development of military war plans, the planning and construction of Pan American Airways' transpacific commercial air routes, the drafting and implementation of various legislative documents, and the undertaking of surveys of numerous Pacific locations to site aviation facilities. Taken together, these processes constituted the technogeopolitical project that territorialised the Pacific Ocean as US space in the interwar years.