ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which the structural arguments succeed in accounting for Britain’s behavior in the 1930s. It analyzes the policy debates leading up to the Munich agreement. Appeasement was not the only or natural choice dictated by the international environment; deterrence and military confrontation were the alternatives recommended by others such as Anthony Eden, Duff Cooper, and Winston Churchill. Britain’s foreign policy in the 1930s raises serious questions about the reasons and assumptions. The calm associated with the “age of Locarno” was gone. Britain became increasingly concerned about the rise of National Socialism and rearmament in Germany, about Japanese threats to British interests in the Far East and about bellicose statements emanating from Italy. For Britain to agree to formal discussions with Italy would be both humiliating and an admission of weakness; other countries would take their cue from this action.
