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The international political economy of appeasement: the social sources of British foreign policy during the 1930s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2010

ALEXANDER ANIEVAS
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Review of International Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 601 - 629
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Copyright © British International Studies Association 2010

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References

1 See policymakers' quotes in Beck, Robert J., ‘Munich's Lessons Reconsidered’, International Security, 14:2 (1989), pp. 161–191Google Scholar ; Record, Jeffrey, The Specter of Munich: Reconsidering the lessons of appeasing Hitler (Washington DC: Potomac, 2007).Google Scholar

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5 In contrast, E. H. Carr, in the first edition of the Twenty Years' Crisis, viewed Chamberlain's policy of appeasement as ‘a reaction of realism against utopianism’ (1939:14fn). Seen within IR as one of the founding fathers of modern realism, the pro-appeasement themes throughout this work illustrate the problematic disassociation between realism's theoretic abstractions and its historically concrete explanations of foreign policies. On this issue see Pozo-Martin, Gonzalo's important piece, ‘Materialist or Autonomous Geopolitics’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20:4 (2007), pp. 551–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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10 The focus of this article is British foreign policymaking. However, where appropriate, I also discuss French policymaking.

11 Arrighi, Giovanni, ‘Hegemony Unravelling – 2’, New Left Review, II:33, p. 103.Google Scholar

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15 Quoted in Schuman, Frederick, Europe on the Eve: The Crisis of Diplomacy, 1933–9 (New York: Knopf, 1942), p. 340.Google Scholar

16 Treisman, ‘Rational Appeasement’, p. 345.

17 A point noted not only by Marxist IR scholars; see Buzan, Barry and Little, Richard, ‘Beyond Westphalia? Capitalism after the “Fall”’, Review of International Studies, 25:5 (1999), pp. 89–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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20 Ruggie, John Gerard, ‘What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-Utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge’, International Organization, 52:4 (1998), p. 859Google Scholar ; Narizny, ‘Both Guns and Butter’, p. 204; de Goede, Marieke, ‘Beyond Economism in International Political Economy’, Review of International Studies, 29 (2003), p. 90Google Scholar ; Hobson, John M., ‘Back to the future of “One logic or Two” Forward to the Past of “Anarchy Versus Racist Hierarchy”’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20:4 (2007), pp. 581–597Google Scholar ; cf. Laffey, Mark, ‘The Red Herring of Economism: a reply to Marieke de Goede’, Review of International Studies, 30 (2004), pp. 459–468Google Scholar ; Bieler, Andreas and Morton, Adam David, ‘The Defecits of Discourse in IPE: Turning Base Metal Into Gold?’, International Studies Quarterly, 52:1 (2008), pp. 103–128Google Scholar

21 Martin Seliger as quoted in Eagleton, Terry, Ideology: An Introduction (London: Verson, 2007), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

22 That a few particular British policymakers viewed the Soviet Union as the lesser danger than the Nazis in the immediate context, but were nevertheless vehemently anti-communist (notably Winston Churchill and Robert Vansittart), in no way invalidates this connection which specifies a general tendency. As with any social theoretical enquiry applied to a particular historical case, it is entirely legitimate for specific ‘exceptions’ to occur. It should be further noted that the Marxist framework elaborated here in no way denies the irreducible role of contingencies in any theoretically-informed historical analysis. The point of any good social theory is to identify the key structures, processes and agents, along with their main lines of interaction, in generating adequate explanatory hypotheses. For an excellent discussion on the relation of Marxist social theory to historical explanation see Callinicos, Alex, Theories and Narratives (London: Polity 1988).Google Scholar

23 I must thank George Lawson for pushing me to clarify these points.

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31 On these changes see J. A. Emery ‘The Emergence of Treasury Influence in British Foreign Policy, 1914–1921’ (PhD Dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1988), pp. 13–110.

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33 The solidification of common interests was further accelerated by the changing structure of the British party system during the interwar period: see Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, p. 30; Middlemas, Keith, Politics in Industrial Society: The Experience of the British System since 1911 (London: Deutsch, 1979).Google Scholar

34 See Einzig, Paul, Appeasement Before, During and After the War (London: Macmillan, 1941)Google Scholar ; Wendt, ‘Economic Appeasement’; Newton, Scott, Profits of Peace: The Political Economy of Appeasement (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996)Google Scholar ; Schmidt, Gustav, The Politics and Economics of Appeasement: British Foreign Policy in the 1930s (London: Berg, 1986)Google Scholar ; Forbes, Doing Business; Kirshner, Johnathan, Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 27–28Google Scholar ; Ferguson, Niall, ‘Earning from History? Financial Markets and the Approach of World Wars’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activities, 1 (2008), pp. 431–490.Google Scholar

35 On the foreign policy strategies and factions supporting them, see Schmidt, Politics and Economics.

36 The concept of ‘structural interdependence’ is elaborated in Harman, Chris, ‘The State and Capitalism Today’, International Socialism, 2:51 (1991).Google Scholar

37 See Holloway, John and Picciotto, Sol (eds), State and Capital: A Marxist Debate (London: Edward Arnold, 1978)Google Scholar ; Clarke, Simon (ed.), The State Debate (London: Macmillan, 1991).Google Scholar

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40 Ibid., p. 114.

41 Block, Revising State Theory.

42 See Ingham, Capitalism Divided; Anderson, ‘Figures’; Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism; Gowan, Peter, ‘The Origins of the Administrative Elite’, New Left Review, 2:162 (1987), pp. 4–34.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., pp. 58–65.

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56 Quoted in Murray, Williamson, The Change in the European Balance of Power, 1938–1939 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 104.Google Scholar Murray's thesis regarding the imperial sources of Britain's appeasement policy in diverting attention away from Britain's ‘continental commitment’ is further illustrated by Bond, Brian, British Military Policy between the Two World Wars (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 188, 257–8, 267–70, 338Google Scholar and Richard Meyers, ‘British Imperial Interests and the Policy of Appeasement’, in Mommsen and Kettenacker, pp. 339–51.

57 Quoted in Middlemas, Politics, p. 259; see also Shay, British Rearmament, pp. 288–9; Peden, British Rearmament, p. 95; Schmidt, ‘Domestic Background’, p. 109; Wendt, ‘Economic Appeasement’, p. 161; Post, Dilemmas, pp. 317–30.

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60 Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Change and Military Conflict from 1500–2000 (London: Fontana Press, 1987).

61 Anderson, ‘Figures’, pp. 71–2.

62 Callinicos, Alex, ‘Exception or Symptom? The British Crisis and the World System’, New Left Review, II:169 (1989), p. 103.Google Scholar

63 Arrighi, ‘Hegemony’, p. 93; Hobsbawn, Industry and Empire, pp. 146–9.

64 Ibid.

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66 Ibid.

67 Gilpin, Robert, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 206–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Mearsheimer, Tragedy, p. 163.

68 The significance of the uneven and combined nature of capitalist development for appeasement is crucial as it helps explain the emergence of the Anglo-German antagonism in the first place. From this perspective, we are able to conceptualise the different logics of British and German policymakers' geopolitical strategies. That Germany's ruling classes would adopt a ‘security through expansionism’ logic of geopolitics in contrast to the more ‘defensive’ geopolitical strategy of their British counterparts had much to do with the spatio-temporal sequencing of industrialisation and state-formation processes in relation to the internationally-mediated development of global capitalism. Approaching these opposing geopolitical logics from such a perspective provides the much needed historically-contextualised sociological basis to the somewhat misnamed realist categories of ‘status-quo’ and ‘revisionist’ powers. Developing these points further is, however, beyond the scope of this article. I seek to address these issues, among others, in an analysis of the origins of the First World War in my forthoming PhD dissertation ‘Capital, States, and Conflict: International Political Economy and Crisis, 1914–1945’. See also Justin Rosenberg, ‘Anarchy in the Mirror of Uneven and Combined Development’, International Politics, forthcoming, and; Allinson, James C. and Anievas, Alexander, ‘Uneven and Combined Development: An Anatomy of a Concept’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 22:1 (2009), pp. 47–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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70 Quoted in Imlay, ‘Democracy and War’, pp. 32–3.

71 Nicolson, Harold, Diaries and letters, 1930–1964 (ed.), Olson, Stanley (London: Flamingo, 1996), p. 132.Google Scholar

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73 Peden, G. C., Arms, Economics and British Strategy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 Quoted in Middlemas, Politics, p. 262.

75 Quoted in Shay, British Rearmament, pp. 126–7, emphasis added.

76 Rosenberg, Justin, The Empire of Civil Society (London: Verso, 1994), pp. 123–124.Google Scholar

77 Shay, British Rearmament, p. 125.

78 Ibid., p. 128.

79 Peden, British Rearmament, p. 82; see also Shay, British Rearmament.

80 Quoted in Schmidt, ‘Domestic Background’, p. 103.

81 Peden, British Rearmament, p. 89; Middlemas, Politics, pp. 256–7.

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86 Ibid., p. 165.

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89 Quoted in Newton, ‘Anglo-German Connection’, p. 299.

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98 MacDonald, ‘German “Moderates”’, pp. 114–7, 116; Newton, ‘Anglo-German Connection’, p. 298.

99 Ibid., (fn. 92), p. 114.

100 Ibid., p. 107; see Schmidt, Economics and Politics.

101 Hargrave, Professor Skinner, p. 222.

102 Schmidt, Economics and Politics, pp. 85–8.

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104 Quoted in Carley, 1939, pp. 31–2.

105 Quoted in Wark, Wesley K., The Ultimate Enemy: British Intelligence and Nazi Germany, 1933–1939 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 212.Google Scholar

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107 Schmidt, Politics and Economics, p. 87; MacDonald, ‘German “Moderates”’.

108 Newton, Profits, p. 86.

109 Ibid., p. 113.

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112 Mearsheimer, Tragedy, p. 165; Ripsman and Levy, ‘Wishful Thinking’.

113 Imlay. ‘Democracy and War’, p. 32.

114 Walt, ‘Alliances’, p. 453.

115 Posen, Sources; Christensen and Snyder, ‘Chang Gangs’; Walt, ‘Alliances’, p. 458; Christensen, ‘Perceptions and Alliances’, pp. 83–91; Van Evera, ‘Causes of War’, pp. 31–3.

116 ‘Chang Gangs’, p. 165.

117 ‘Tripolarity’, p. 85.

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123 Quoted in Carley, 1939, pp. 199–200.

124 Carley, 1939, p. 117.

125 Quoted in Kennedy, Paul, ‘Idealists and Realists: British Views of Germany, 1864–1939’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5:25 (1975), p. 155.Google Scholar

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127 See Halperin, War and Social Change.

128 Quoted in Harvey, Diplomatic Diaries, p. 290.

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130 Quoted in Halperin, War and Social Change, p. 203.

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134 Quoted in Richardson, Charles O., ‘French Plans for Allied Attacks on the Caucasus Oil Fields January–April, 1940’, French Historical Studies, 8:1 (1973), p. 140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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140 Quoted in Post, Dilemmas, p. 204.

141 Quoted in Lammers, Donald N., Explaining Munich: The Search for Motive in British Policy (Standford: Hoover Institute, 1966), p. 20.Google Scholar

142 Quotes in Carley, 1939, p. 83 and Young, France, p. 67.

143 See quotes in DBFP, 3rd, IV, doc. no. 555: 535; Irvine, Crisis, pp. 165–6, 170–2, 196; Carley, 1939, pp. 59–61, 72–3, 83–4, 230–1.

144 Quoted in Colville, John, Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries, 1939–1955 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985), p. 28.Google Scholar

145 Halperin, War and Social Change, p. 214.

146 Quoted in Colville, Fringes, p. 40.

147 Quoted in Harvey, Diplomatic Diaries, p. 338.

148 See quotes in Carley, 1939, p. 245.

149 Halperin, War and Social Change, p. 214; Richardson, ‘French Plans’, p. 136; Keeble, Curtis, Britain and the Soviet Union, 1917–1989 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990), p. 159.Google Scholar

150 Richardson, ‘French Plans’, p. 136; Carley, 1939, pp. 238–45.

151 Ibid., p. 137. I have to thank Professor Carley for stressing to me these points.

152 Halperin, War and Social Change, p. 200.

153 See Khong, Yuen Foong, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).Google Scholar

154 Buzan and Little, ‘Beyond Westphalia’, p. 89.

155 Walt's assertion (1992), p. 452 that ‘the threat from Nazi Germany was anything but obvious’ is unconvincing. British and French intelligence agencies provided ample evidence detailing the extent of the Nazi threat; see Young, Robert J., In Command of France, pp. 162–164Google Scholar ; Kennedy, Paul, The Rise and Fall, p. 316Google Scholar ; Post, Gaines, Dilemmas of Appeasement, pp. 164–166Google Scholar ; Jackson, Peter, ‘French Intelligence and Hitler's Rise to Power’, The Historical Journal 41:3 (1998), pp. 795–824.Google Scholar

156 As emphasised within the revisionist historiographical literature against the ‘guilty men’ thesis of the more ‘orthodox’ interpretations. For a recent review of this literature; see Aster, Sidney, ‘Appeasement: Before and After Revisionism’, Diplomacy & Statecraft, 19:3 (2008), pp. 443–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

157 Well demonstrated in Jonathan Haslam (1984) The Soviet Union and the Struggle for Collective Security in Europe, 1933–1939; Carley, 1939; Shaw, Louise Grace, The British Political Elite and the Soviet Union, 1937–1939 (London: Frank Cass, 2003).Google Scholar

158 See, for example, Robert Gilpin, War and Change; Kennedy, Great Powers; Schweller, Deadly Imbalances.