Among the many twentieth-century explosions in technology that have made the world into a global village, few have had tangible or far-reaching an impact as aviation. David MacKenzie examines the efforts made to establish an international system for the regulation and operation of international air services, and the role played by Canadians in its development. MacKenzie approaches international civil aviation as an arm of government policy: the extension abroad of Canadian national policy. He also looks at the relationship between the bureaucratic and political levels of government and, in the larger context, at the relations between Canada and its major allies, the United States and Great Britain. Drawing on private papers and government documents from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland, MacKenzie offers an international perspective on one of Canada's most important contributions to public policy in the mid-twentieth century.