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Throughout history, airpower have almost been synonym and intertwined with the term superpower. As a natural cause, theorizing around airpower, have almost exclusively been made from the perspective of big states with vast resources. Shaun Clarkes SPOT-theory is an attempt to develop a possible way also for smaller states, to be able to get strategic effects that otherwise would have been out of reach.

The technical development in unmanned aerial platforms during the last couple of decades have also made it possible for smaller actors to get in the game of airpower, without the need to obtain expensive conventional flying platforms.

Since the late 1980:s, there have been several conflicts and skirmishes between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, also called Artsakh. During 6 weeks in September through November 2020, a new conflict broke out between the two states. The conflict had a clear winner in Azerbaijan that after the conflict was settled, once again had regained control over some parts of the conflicted region. During the conflict, drones seem to have played a big role in Azerbaijan’s success.

The aim of this study is to investigate what possibilities a smaller state has, to effectively use airpower in general, and drones specifically, to reach strategic goals, not only in the military arena but at the political level a well. This is done by testing Clarkes SPOT-paradigm in the context of Azerbaijan’s usage of drones in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, between the 27th of September and 10th of November 2020.