Containing Iran without boots on the ground

Washington

EMPLOYING historical analogies can be useful when we try to apply the lessons of an event that happened in the past to what seems to be its counterpart in the present. But seeking guidance from history can also create intellectual traps for policymakers and pundits when they misapply those historical analogies and, in some cases, play fast and loose with them.

Hence, for much of the post-1945 Western leaders, applying the lessons of World War II operated under the assumption that the adoption of a policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany - symbolised by the agreement that the British and French leaders signed with Adolph Hitler in Munich in 1938 - helped encourage German military aggression that eventually led to the breakout of war in Europe.