"Appeasement is a pejorative term for a strategic maneuver, based on either pragmatism, fear of war, or moral conviction, that leads to acceptance of imposed conditions in preference to defending against aggressors. Since World War II, the term has generally negative connotations of weakness and cowardice, and people rarely use it to describe policies they support and tend to use it to label policies that they oppose."
This is a spiffing definition of the word.
Biggles, we appease regimes all the time. To say it "doesn’t work" is nonsense. We let Saudi Arabia and Pakistan get away with - murder, literally considering the events of Sep 11. The cold war was a classic example of a "fear of war" that led to an acceptance of "imposed conditions". Had the Joint Chiefs been more influential during the Cuban missile crisis for example, we might not be sitting here today, conversing on pprune.
"People rarely use it to describe policies they support".
Washington’s cozy relationship with the "Butcher of Chechnya" is a fine example of this.