Strefy zakazu lotów jako sposób wymuszania pokoju z powietrza w działaniach sojuszniczych

At the turn of the century air force was relatively frequently used to solve international and domestic crises. The most widespread "area” of its activity comprises operations to enforce no-fly zones and other zones of denied access. The no-fly zones enforcement operations conducted over northern and southern Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina are permanently engraved in the air force history of NATO, the USA, Great Britain, France and Turkey. However, the article stresses that the way of air force activities in this type of operations derives from colonial wars of the 1920s and 1930s. The airspace control implemented by the Royal Air Force (RAF) was accepted as a model development. In the operations discussed in the article such as "Provide Comfort”, “Northern Watch”, Southern Watch”, Deny Flight’’, and "Deliberate Force”, the attention was drawn to the most important events connected with using air force that, according to the author, greatly influenced the course of peacekeeping process in Bosnia, Herzegovina and keeping a stable situation in the Persian Gulf. There have been shown different tasks and political and military conditions of these operations and also the influence of these factors on the size, structure and tasks of the air forces conducting these operations. The effectiveness of the air force performance in these, mostly long lasting, operations has also been discussed. In the conclusions, the author has presented some regularities appearing in the no-fly zone enforcement operations described above. Thus the thesis has been confirmed that air force is a perfect tool to support international organisations in keeping international security and world peace.