rapprochement n : the reestablishing of cordial relations [syn: reconciliation]

English

Noun

1. The establishment of or state of having cordial relations; an agreement, accord, or reconciliation.

   It was the Nixon administration that saw the rapprochement between the United States and China.

In international relations a rapprochement, which comes from the French word rapprocher'' ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations, as between two countries. In the political scene of an individual country rapprochement means the bringing together of diverse political factions as, for example, during metapolitefsi in Greece. It is often used to describe the mending of relations between the United States under Richard Nixon and the Peoples Republic of China from 1972 onwards.

Rapprochement also refers to a human developmental milestone occurring around 18 months. The child moves away from and then returns to the mother for reassurance.

accord, accordance, affinity, agape, agreement, amity, bonds of harmony, brotherly love, caritas, cement of friendship, charity, communion, community, community of interests, compatibility, concord, concordance, congeniality, correspondence, empathy, esprit, esprit de corps, feeling of identity, fellow feeling, fellowship, frictionlessness, good vibes, good vibrations, happy family, harmonizing, harmony, identity, kinship, like-mindedness, love, making up, mutuality, oneness, peace, rapport, reciprocity, reconcilement, reconciliation, reunion, settlement, sharing, solidarity, sympathy, symphony, team spirit, understanding, union, unison, unity