A familiar aspect of the criterion against Britain and Prime Minister Tony Blair's staunch support for America in the recent war against Iraq most relates to the “theory” that Blair is but a mere “poodle” of George Bush; a subservient lieutenant at the beck and call of his master in Washington. A related but more perceptive criticism, shared by many scholars and analysts is the charge that Blair's subservience to Washington is a potent indication that Britain has lost its freedom of manoeuvre in foreign policy. That Britain's close diplomatic, intelligence and defence cooperation with, and dependence on, America have deprived it of the ability to oppose America. The myth of the “special relationship” has condemned Britain to the rank of a mere vassal in the American empire. However, critics may have overstated their case because Blair's choices were influenced substantially by his own strongly held political principles and convictions.
It is sometimes necessary in serious interstate disputes for a party to unilaterally accommodate an opponent’s demands or claims. Such unreciprocated or one-sided accommodation, however, does not only pose political and psychological risks, it also seems to conflict with the basic bargaining norm of reciprocity. Yet the imperative of ending deadlocks that can degenerate into belligerent conflicts demands such unreciprocated accommodation. This imperative also calls for a positive and principled concept for understanding unreciprocated accommodation. With the perhaps unjustified and continuing discrediting of appeasement as a legitimate accommodative bargaining strategy, this article highlights the notion of concession as a valuable, non-pejorative concept of accommodation. The article offers a framework of concession that helps determine when/why a strong state would undertake the unreciprocated accommodation of an opponent. The argument is empirically illustrated using the Anglo-American conflict over Venezuela at the end of the nineteenth century.
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