Airpower’s Effectiveness in Support of National Policy

Resumo

Since the dawn of manned fl ight, airpower theorists have debated its effectiveness. This study will consider airpower in its broad sense, addressing the “total” airpower contribution to infl uence adversary’s political behavior, thus supporting the achievement of the national policy objectives. Although highly situational and with controversial narratives, this essay will argue that airpower’s effectiveness in support of national policy has signifi cantly improved since 1945. Moreover, the study of airpower unveils certain commonalities which have affected its effectiveness. This essay will highlight some of these factors in a trinity which considers the scope of objectives, adversary’s strategy, and airpower’s strategy. It concludes that to be effective, airpower does not need to win wars singlehandedly. It only needs to provide fl exible options to be used by the decision makers when willing to use force to compel a change of adversary’s behavior.