the.com/appeasement
giving the bully your lunch money and calling it diplomacy.
means a strategy of making concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict, which usually just funds the next demand.
from from old french apaisier, to bring peace, but the word got permanently mugged by 1938 munich agreement, when britain handed hitler part of czechoslovakia hoping he would stop there.
chamberlain's promisedeclared peace for our time, war came within a year
churchill's linecalled it feeding the crocodile hoping to be eaten last
rehabilitated meaningpre-1938 the word meant something entirely uncontroversial, calming
modern usagenow almost always an insult, rarely a neutral policy term
for instance
munich agreement 1938 — britain and france ceded sudetenland to hitler, no war followed for eleven months
vichy france — 1940 government cooperated with nazi occupation to preserve limited autonomy
danegeld — anglo saxon kings paid viking raiders off starting 991 ad, raids kept coming