The Battle of Britain

This research examines the Battle of Britain. For the United Kingdom, the European aspect of the Second World War lasted for a total of 70 months. At the outside, the Battle of Britain spanned only seven months of that total. For the mostpart, however, the Battle of Britain occurred over an even shorter time periodthe threeandonehalf months (114 days) from 10 July 1940 through 31 October 1940 (Gelb, 1985). Further, the second party the the BattleGermanyhas never agreed that a Battle of Britain per se ever occurred (Taylor, 1978). Of course, the Germans acknowledge their bombing raids over southern England, and the consequent air combat between the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Luftwaffe during the relevant time period. What they do not accept is the British attribution of German military objectives associated with that activity, and the British assessment of the significance of that activity (Deighton, 1978). Lastly, the most senior members of the RAF at the time were in almost total disagreement with the manner in which the Battle of Britain was waged, and wasted little time once it was over in giving the boot to the manAir Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowdingmost responsible for British success in the Battle (Deighton, 1978; Gelb, 1985; Wright, 1969).

In spite of its relatively short duration, the failure of the Germans to acknowledge either its decisiveness or their intent in it, and the eagerness of the British senior air

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lations and agree to a mutually acceptable termination of the conflict" (George, Hall, & Simons, 1971, p. 18). In actuality, after all of this high level rhetoric is distilled, coercive diplomacy is a limited application of military power, in an effort to attain 9goals without the risks typically associated with fullscale military action. Coercive diplomacy holds many potential advantages to the party capable of applying the concept effectively. When coercive diplomacy does not work, however, the initiating party may weaken its position significantly (Handel, 1981). Quincy Wright (1964, p. 205) wrote that effective government "necessarily combines the principles of consent and coercion, but the proportion of each is not unimportant. The virtues of modern civilization . . . can be better preserved . . with a maximum of consent and a minimum of compulsion . . ." Coercion used in political development is a part of conflict behavior at the societal level (Mitchell, 1981). Conflict behavior is contrasted with competition. Where competition is "aimed at achieving particular goals, conflict implies "behavior aimed at affecting an opponent" (Mitchell, 1981, p. 30). The differentiation between conflict behavior and compe

Category: History - T