What term describes the policy of making concessions to an aggressor to avoid war, associated with Neville Chamberlain?

• A. Appeasement
• B. Containment
• C. Massive Retaliation
• D. Isolationism

Answer: (A)

Appeasement is the policy of trying to prevent war by conceding to an aggressor’s demands. In the 1930s, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain pursued this approach, hoping to secure peace with Nazi Germany. The Munich Agreement of 1938—that allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia—is the emblematic example: the idea was that satisfying limited German ambitions would avert a larger conflict. But many see this as encouraging further aggression, since it suggested that concessions would be rewarded with restraint, and it failed to stop the slide toward World War II. This concept differs from containment, which sought to limit an adversary’s expansion rather than appease it; from massive retaliation, which relies on threats of overwhelming force; and from isolationism, which aims to withdraw from international involvement.