Recent studies indicate that British appeasement towards Hitler followed a buying-time logic, i.e., it tried to postpone confrontation until Great Britain improved its military position through rearmament. However, this chapter shows that Germany actually extended its military edge over the appeasement years. Drawing on the literature on judgment and decision-making, the chapter theorizes that competition neglect – the tendency to focus myopically on one’s own capabilities and pay insufficient attention to those of the competition – may explain the puzzling gap between British policymakers’ plans and actual trends in the balance of power. The competition neglect thesis and an alternative explanation, positing the occurrence of miscalculation, are tested with a case study of British foreign policy towards Germany in 1937-38.
University of Miami, United States - ORCID: 0000-0002-8784-8623
Chapter Title
The Appeasement Puzzle and Competition Neglect
Authors
Costantino Pischedda
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-595-0.11
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2022
Copyright Information
© 2022 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Eirene e Atena
Book Subtitle
Studi di politica internazionale in onore di Umberto Gori
Editors
Fulvio Attinà, Luciano Bozzo, Marco Cesa, Sonia Lucarelli
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
208
Publication Year
2022
Copyright Information
© 2022 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-595-0
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-594-3
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-595-0
Series Title
Studi e saggi
Series ISSN
2704-6478
Series E-ISSN
2704-5919