Appeasing aggression

Description

Appeasing aggression involves taking conciliatory actions—such as making concessions, offering incentives, or avoiding confrontation—to reduce immediate hostility and prevent escalation of conflict. The strategy aims to defuse tensions, protect vulnerable parties, and maintain stability by addressing the aggressor’s demands or grievances. While it may provide short-term relief and avert violence, appeasement is intended as a practical remedy to urgent threats, rather than a long-term solution to underlying causes of aggression.

Context

The appeasement of aggression may be used in order to gain time for conflict resolution, but may also serve to permit and encourage further acts of aggression from the aggressor. Appeasement of aggression may occur when the aggressor is powerful and dangerous, or when parties do not have the political will to condemn or act against the aggressor.

Implementation

At the time of writing, the international community has appeased ethnic Serbian aggression in Bosnia, emphasizing conflict resolution. In this case, the strategy has only served ethnic Serbs to conquer more of Bosnia. Negotiations backed by no credible threat of armed force have turned into appeasement. In a similar context, the British-French appeasement of the Czech crises in 1938 was the appeasement of Nazi Germany, and only served to encourage Hitler's ambitions.

Counter-claim

There are only two elements in a conflict. Those who want war to continue and those who want peace and want to leave together. To be impartial in this situation means supporting aggression.