The spectacle of a government using fighter jets to forcibly divert a commercial flight in order to snatch a dissident journalist has sent shockwaves around the globe. Belarus’s brazen violation of the norms of civil aviation to arrest the journalist Roman Protasevich has prompted a flurry of condemnations and countermeasures, including airlines avoiding Belarusian airspace and banning the country’s national airline. But while the tactic of faking a bomb threat to force down a plane flying over the country, orchestrated by Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko, is novel, the strategy behind it is becoming alarmingly widespread.
