Commercial Aviation Policy in Argentina: ?National Air Power? and the ?Argentinean Doctrine?.

PIGLIA, MELINA

Washington

Conferencia; Flying down to Rio, German History Institute cycle of Conferences; 2021

German Historical Institute, Washington DC.

Argentinean air policy was defined between 1945 and 1947, between the end of the de facto regime and the beginning of the constitutional government headed by Juan D. Perón. The new interest shown by Argentine State in aviation was inspired in a concept very dear to the military since the late 1930s, the ?national air power?, a central aspect of the defense of national sovereignty in the new global ? very conflictive - context.The paper analyses the first years of Aerolíneas Argentina's history and the air policy of the Peronista decade as a simultaneous response to the desire to stop US expansion into South America, affirm Argentinean hegemony in the region, and consolidate the process of industrialization and economic autonomy, in a postwar scenario predicted to be turbulent for world trade.