Stylized historical analogies often play a similar role. For example, international relations scholars use the famous meeting between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 as a model of how appeasing a power bent on expansionism can be futile (or dangerous).

Munich the 1938 meeting between Adolf Hitler, Édouard Daladier, Neville Chamberlain, and Benito Mussolini is a frequent witness summoned to court by politicians trying to argue the case for foreign adventures. Britain s disastrous 1956 invasion of Egypt was talked about as though Gamal Nasser was a throw back to the fascist dictators of the 1930 s.

PRAGUE As I listened to what some Europeans were saying as my country prepared to take over the presidency of the European Union, I heard dim echoes of Neville Chamberlain s infamous description of Czechoslovakia as a faraway country of which we know little. I suppose that Donald Rumsfeld s misguided bid a few years ago to incite a divide between new and old Europe contributed to the re emergence of that disdainful attitude.

PRAGUE As I listened to what some Europeans were saying as my country prepared to take over the presidency of the European Union, I heard dim echoes of Neville Chamberlain s infamous description of Czechoslovakia as a faraway country of which we know little. I suppose that Donald Rumsfeld s misguided bid a few years ago to incite a divide between new and old Europe contributed to the re emergence of that disdainful attitude.

So, while the interim agreement may not be a replay of the Munich Agreement in 1938, as many critics contend, it may have set the stage for an even more combustible future. US President Barack Obama may not be in office when the fire ignites, but if things do go terribly wrong, he may be remembered as another statesman who, like Neville Chamberlain, was blind to the consequences of his peaceful intentions.

In this regard, the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London in 2000 in the case of Neville Lewis and others v. the Attorney General of Jamaica and Another should be noted, which held that the exercise of the prerogative of mercy should, in the light of Jamaica's international obligations, be exercised by procedures that are fair and proper, such as disclosure to the applicant of all materials to go before the review committee, and amenable to judicial review.