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New Perspectives on Appeasement: Some Implications for International Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

J. L. Richardson
J. L. Richardson
Affiliation:
Australian National University
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Abstract

Historical research since the opening of the British archives in the late 1960s has brought about a substantial revision of the image of appeasement that had generally been accepted after World War II. Yet the traditional image has scarcely been questioned in contemporary writing on international relations. This article examines some of the central themes in recent studies relating to appeasement: the “structural” approach, which offers a new overall interpretation; the economic, military, and intelligence “dimensions” of British foreign policy in the 1930s; and the breaking down of traditional stereotypes of the roles of Chamberlain and Churchill. This reappraisal has important implications for the discipline of international relations, its view of the origins of World War II, and theories of international structural change.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , April 1988 , pp. 289 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1988

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References

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