Churchill argues that a powerful state cannot make itself secure simply by allowing a weaker country to be sacrificed to an aggressor. The image of throwing a small state “to the wolves” suggests that such concessions may satisfy an expansionist power only temporarily, while weakening the wider system of deterrence and encouraging further demands.

The remark reflects Churchill’s criticism of appeasement in the years before the Second World War, when concessions to Nazi Germany were defended partly as a means of avoiding a larger conflict. His point is both strategic and political: abandoning smaller states may undermine alliances, damage credibility and alter the balance of power without removing the underlying threat. More broadly, the quotation expresses a principle of collective security, in which the safety of stronger states can depend on resisting aggression against weaker ones rather than treating their fate as expendable.