Blog 8

Brittney Griffith BLOG 8
In the area that is social sciences, defining a term becomes a difficult task because often times the situation being defined can't have a one size fit all definition. Situations have many different factors, causes, and actors, and sometimes need definitions that need to be specifically tailored for that specific situation. Over time definitions that are used in describing what is political violence have progressively gotten better. The question is, do the definitions as of now accurately and effectively define issues of political violence today?
While looking over situations of collective political violence all over the world, I chose the issue that arose between Albania and the United Kingdom in 1946, as a reference for this blog post. In 1946 three seperate incidents between the United Kingdome and Albania created the Corfu Channel incident. Albania making the first move attaching Royal navy ships. The second, a strike back from the Royal Navy by deploying naval mines to blow up ships in the water. The third in final strike came again from the Royal Navy when they went into channel waters owned by the Albanians and started taking out water mines. After the third incident the Albanians went to the United Nations and made a complaint. Which lead to them getting a fine owed to Great Britain after the UN took the corfu channel case. But after the incidents between the two, Great Britain cut off communications which were being used for peace, and were not reconvined unit 1991 (Corfu).
The definition I want to use in the book to define what exactly is the situation above is interstate warfare. The book defines interestate warfare as, "the use of violence by states against other states to achieve political goals" (Samuels). Overall I think the author does a good job broadly defining what and interstate war consists of or better what is needed in a situation to be defined as an interstate war, but there are some issues when applying that definition to the situation I chose. The parts that do match up well to the definition from this incident was that the use of force was used by all state and non-state actors involved. Albania struck first and Great Britain retaliated, twice, and then Albania informally retaliated but with no use of force, they took the issue up with the United Nations. Also that it was two seperate states, the Royal Navy (Great Britain) and Albania. The issue I am seeing with the definition is at the end when it says, ". . . to achieve political goals." The incident was started over arguments about rights of crossing the channel. I see a point if Albania thought the channel belong to them, but attacking the royal navy seems more like a last minute plan to make their feelings known, and less of a plan to achieve a political goal. I would add to the definition, achieve political goals or also to make a nations view in a more tangible way.
Also another issue I saw was the certain specifics professor Hawkins included when talking about the definition of interstate warfare. He said that there is a big death toll, usually around 1,000 deaths from battle (Hawkins). According to the source I found there was less than 45 deaths total (Corfu). In that part of the definition I would say yes it does include the use of force which usually does mean death but I don't believe there should be a certain number of deaths. He did say usually and I believe that this would be the exception.
In conclusion, I would say that the book defintion paired with what Professor Hawkins said in class I would agree almost fully that the definition does work, there are just a few tweeks that need to be adjusted to fit the specific situation present above.
Sources:
"Corfu Channel Incident." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 July 2012. Web. 09 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu_Channel_incident>.
Hawkins, Kirk. "Political Violence." 150 Comparative Politics Class. JFSB of Brigham Young University, Provo. 5 Nov. 2012. Lecture.
Samuels, David J. "Chapter 10." Comparative Politics. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, 2013. N. pag. Print.