ICAO Matters - or does it??
(SLF, progressing in aviation law, following thread(s) re: 8303)…
With a few years' worth now of observing what activities ICAO actually does and how it actually conducts those activities, from a pretty close vantage point both organizationally and geographically, two observations relevant to these revelations are worth noting (neither of them very pedantic).
ICAO is of course driven in a top-down manner, and in order to keep its fuel tanks full of Consensus, it defines and then almost defies what amount to slogans . . . in this context, "No Country Left Behind." Pray tell, where is the international civilian aviation community going, in the first place, and why would anybody who knows how to tell the (proverbial) pointy end of the airplane apart from the, let's say, lav "Occupied" door indicator, believe that ICAO knows either the destination we're trying to reach, how to get there, or what to do if something goes awry along the way?
Lest this appear as too harsh, I'll admit I have sometimes gawked in a kind of disbelief of wonder at the palatial building in Montreal where World Aviation has its Most Important Office, but being impressed by the sheer history of the items in the ICAO Museum does not signify organizational effectiveness. This all having been said, certainly there are top-flight technical people in the Organization, especially in and around the ANC (Air Navigation Commission). But they don't decide policy initiatives, obviously, and aren't the mainstay of the all-important Consensus.
As well, there is a disconnect between the way ICAO has succeeded, and where the international civil aviation sector, globally, exists and operates today. If someone knows how to draw a line of separation and demarcation that can, and will, keep what happens (in this instance) in Pakistan's domestic air transport sector from influencing its place and function in the international realm, I hope they will articulate it. Yes international flights can be banned - that's looking from the outside into the Country Not Supposed to Be Left Behind. I'm suggesting, looking from inside that Country, oops I mean Member State, outward, where is the dividing line between stuff that goes wrong but does not matter much to the international sector, and otherwise?
As a cheap shot, I'll add that maybe the post-Second World War overall diplomatic and commercial context which gave rise to ICAO by and through the Convention in Chicago of 1944, is past due time for a basic overhaul. I have as much affinity as the next person for a nice conference-producing organization which also does first-rate technical work and thus provides infrastructure support as well as nice destinations around the world for civil servants and governments to get together and expense-account-network. Still, if FAA and other Member States' CAAs are truly regulatory bodies, and if ICAO is supposed to be only quasi-regulatory at most, somebody ought to plug the bucket before the quasi tank goes dry.