Description
In popular discourse about foreign policy, appeasement has become synonymous with capitulation and even moral cowardice. The discipline of International Relations has relatively little to offer in terms of existing literature that might clarify the term or distinguish it from others such as accommodation or capitulation. Historians have, thus far, been unable to make inroads into the almost complete dominance of the single historical example of pre-World War Two British foreign policy in empirical scholarship on the topic. Both of these factors have led to a lack of serious discussion of how ethical judgements might be made about appeasement in different circumstances. This paper sets out a new agenda on the topic, how it might be studied, and how it can contribute to both scholarly and policy-focused work in the future.
