The Theory of Functionalism and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO): An Analytical Assessment After the First Fifty Years

Abstract

The search for world peace has enjoyed perennial attention among scholars and world leaders throughout the ages. Closely allied with the search for world peace is an equally tenacious quest for order, peace and stability in international society. Integrationist theories which postulate the ultimate unification of world communities as a path to world peace constitute one avenue developed by statesmen and political scientists with an interest in world peace. Chief among integrationist theories is the theory of functionalism which gained appreciable currency in the aftermath of World War I. "Classical function'alism relies upon the cooperative pursuit of common interests in nonpolitical fields to generate political changes conducive to peace" (Claude 1956, p. 405). Fundamental to the theory of functionalism were the seminal writings of David Mitrany (1933, 1943), who contended that with the increase in technological sophistication and the need for systemic solutions to complex problems which transcend national borders, people will ultimately transfer their allegiance from nation states to effective international agencies with functional missions which involve the development of international economic and social cooperation. The ample parameters of functional missions include such specific goals as the eradication of poverty, diseases, illiteracy, economic insecurity, exploitation, as well as the elevation of living standards through reductions in the interference caused by national frontiers in an interdependent global economy and improvements in international air travel and commerce. Functionalism therefore constitutes an important theoretical bedrock for several intergovernmental organizations (lGOs) established to fulfill functional responsibilities in the first half of the twentieth century. Among the IGOs with functional responsibilities is the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which was formed by 52 nations during the Chicago Conference of 1944. ICAO was formed with the functional mission of ensuring the development of international civil aviation in a safe and orderly manner. As ICAO moves beyond its first half century, it is prudent to conclude that international civil aviation is quite safe and very orderly. After a careful narrative analyses of the theory of functionalism and ICAO, this paper concludes that the jury may still be out on whether functionalist predictions will ever be validated by a transfer of allegiance from nation states to a functional IGO such as ICAO.