Aeropeace: Imagining Positive Peace in European Airspace

As Europe grapples with a rapidly shifting security environment and a turn toward rearmament, European airspace is becoming more crowded, chaotic, and dangerous, with implications for everyday life across the continent. This essay argues that peace can no longer be imagined without a peaceful sky, termed here as “Aeropeace.” Aeropeace is a conceptual frame for rethinking airspace not only through the lens of “negative peace,” meaning the absence of violence and disruption, but also through the lens of “positive peace,” emphasizing safety, trust, justice, sustainability, and democratic participation. By reconceptualizing lower airspace as a public commons essential to everyday security, Aeropeace encourages a broader conversation about shared atmospheric governance and peace. Examples of negative Aeropeace include measures against digital insecurity that could compromise airspace governance, as well as measures to hinder physical incursions and armed attacks by drones, balloons, airplanes, and missiles. As examples of positive Aeropeace, the essay discusses the largely completed Airspace Tribunal Initiative and the incipient idea of indigenous Arctic airspace, drawing on Canadian examples.