Appeasement is a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to an aggressor. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and compromise, thereby avoiding the resort to an armed conflict which would be expensive, bloody, and possibly dangerous." Kennedy's definition has been widely cited by scholars. Appeasement was used by European democracies in the 1930s who wished to avoid war with the dictatorships of Germany and Italy, bearing in mind the horrors of World War I.

Der Begriff Appeasement-Politik (Beschwichtigungspolitik, von engl. to appease, frz. apaiser, „besänftigen, beschwichtigen,beruhigen“) bezeichnet eine Politik der Zugeständnisse, der Zurückhaltung, der Beschwichtigung und des Entgegenkommens gegenüber Aggressionen zur Vermeidung von Konflikten.