A generation traumatised by one war tried to avoid another, and in the effort, taught rivals how far they could go. This is a study of hesitation: moments when caution became abdication, and respectable procedure hid strategic retreat.
Across crises from Abyssinia to Munich, it traces how the League of Nations’ votes without power signalled weakness, how commerce blunted conscience, and how early firmness might have saved lives. Readers who care about today’s uncertain world will find a practical framework: how to read warnings, set thresholds, and spot when negotiation becomes self-deception. It is for policy thinkers, historians, journalists, and citizens who want deterrence lessons without bombast and counterfactual history without fantasy. Along the way, it revisits the appeasement debate, the Rhineland crisis, and the Spanish Civil War, extracting usable insights about sanctions policy and alliance design.
The promise is clarity. You will learn to recognise missed chances, weigh prewar diplomacy against outcomes, and test claims of collective security failures with a disciplined method. The past cannot be undone, but its patterns can be understood in time to matter.