Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper critically analyzes the use of English as a second language in the field of aviation. International air traffic has played an important role in the recent globalization. Many pilots and air-traffic controllers whose native languages are not English are important part of it. As the common communicative tool, English proficiency is a crucial prerequisite for them to participate in the field. However, fatal accidents due to miscommunication involving limited English proficiency have still occurred. The paper first reviews some salient aviation accidents to critically analyze how communication breakdowns occurred in non-native-English-speaking environment. It then introduces some attempts to avoid such communication breakdowns and analyzes limitations of those attempts. Finally, the paper proposes few suggestions for the non-native English-speaking aviation personnel to achieve a safer environment.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper seeks to analyze the threat from the Russian stockpile and consider its subsequent impact on aviation should a nuclear device be targeted against civil aviation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The suicide attack in September 11, 2001 has dramatically switched the international attitude towards aviation security. Racial Profiling has been used in several airports around the world and become the core of a national controversial debate. This research analyzes all the published civil aviation terrorism against Israeli airliners and airports from 1968 to 2006. The database was taken from archive of two Israeli leading newspapers and was compared and verified with database of several research institutions and organizations, which systematically collect data about global terrorism. Furthermore, we conducted face-to-face interviews with former chiefs of the Security Department in Israeli Airport Authority as well as former security officers in the airport. We also use databases of general terrorism events against non-aviation Israeli targets (buses, restaurant, etc) for evaluation the features and risks of terror in general and for calculating the deterrence effect of the airport security procedures.
The findings provide several reliable results: the most visible is the effectiveness of the system as a whole – from its foundation and in spite of ongoing threats, terrorists or any other aggressors have not succeed to hijack an Israeli airplane; none of the attacks had begun in Israeli airport; and the number of casualties is extremely low in any scale. However, the effectiveness of the racial profiling component per se is relatively very low. In addition, the demographic features of the aggressor are evident – the typical aggressor is a terrorist, member in a terror organization, man, young, Muslim-Arab and in most cases Palestinian. However, the findings do not indicate that the Israeli Arabs citizens were at any rate involved in air terrorism, albeit they are usually considered as a high-risk group in the airport procedures.
Although the issue of racial profiling is so important in aviation counter terrorism, it is hard to find comprehensive empirical research addressing the efficiency of this method. The current research is quite original and addresses this gap in the literature. Furthermore, Israel isn't the only state who uses racial profiling as aviation counter terrorism; hence, we argue that our research is applicable for many countries that use similar security procedure.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Aviation Security (AVSEC) is governed by a set of international regulations established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Given the varying requirements, capacities, and goals of various national and sub-national agents, creating a consensus and then ensuring compliance with AVSEC regulations presents a technical, diplomatic, and political challenge. To further understand the management of risk in the contemporary international environments, this paper will examine the training institute at the International Air Transport Association and the World AVSEC conference held jointly with ICAO to analyze how agenda-setters and experts translate information regarding risk in aviation security into practical knowledge, norms, and standards. In short we ask, how does AVSEC knowledge become AVSEC managment. Based on empirical research, AVSEC presents a case study of international governance of security issues which adds a great deal to our understanding of security complexes, organizational and bureaucratic politics, and theories of the governance of risk.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Open Skies? The EU, the US and Civil Aviation
Liberalization
Much has been written on the impact of Europeanization member state
policymaking, the majority of it suggesting a two-way accommodation
between national policies and administrative structures and the results
of the EU legislative process (Héritier, et. al. 2001; Thatcher, 2001;
Montpetit, 2000; Levi-Faur, 1999; Rometsch and Wessels, 1996). However,
scant attention has been given to an emerging trend in the European
Union, the increasing number of Aeuroagencies.@ Through these agencies
the Commission has sought enhanced oversight responsibility, refusing
to rely solely upon member states for the implementation of legislation.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is one early example, created to
work on environmental initiatives and problems from an EU-wide
perspective. However, the few academic assessments of the EEA and other
Aeuroagencies@ done generally downplayed their significance and
potential (Shaprio, 1997; McGowan and Wallace, 1996; Watertown, 1996).
In the past few years, the Commission has initiated several proposals
for new oversight agencies, largely in response to various EU-wide
Acrises.@ These institutional responses include a European Food Agency,
a Fisheries Inspectorate, and the AEurojust,@ an agency which would be
responsible for coordinating activities related to the criminal justice
system. As part of its AOpen Skies@ proposal, the Commission has pushed
for the creation of a European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA),
idealized as operating in much the same way the US Federal Aviation
Agency. This proposal is part of the Commission=s response to a decade
long dispute between the Commission, the member states, and civil
aviation industry; a dispute intensified by both the September 11
attacks and an in-flight collision between two aircraft in the summer
of 2002. The creation of AOpen Skies@ over the EU would increase the
competencies of the Commission in a functionally specific way, spur
integration through the establishment of EU-wide rules governing civil
aviation, and allow the Commission to represent the EU at the global
level through its representative function in the major international
organization overseeing aviation. The Commission has an important ally
in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and as Alter (1998) has argued,
the Commission and the ECJ have worked together in the past to expand
the scope of their competencies, as both have common interests in
developing and enhancing the powers of supranational institutions.
Working together, both have been able to carve out more autonomous
roles, allowing supranational endeavors that limit the maneuverability
of the member states, either individually or as a collective (Weiler,
1991; Alter, 1993, Burley and Mattli,1993; Alter 1998; Mattli and
Slaughter, 1995, 1998; Stone Sweet and Caporaso, 1998). The paper will
argue that the Commission, with the assistance of crucial rulings by
the ECJ, has acceded to the desires of the member states and the air
carriers for liberalization in the hopes of spurring efficiency through
its initial offerings of negative coordination (Scharpf, 1997).
However, the Commission is positioning itself for future positive
integration by positioning itself both institutionally and legally to
be a stronger regulatory body in the future.