Breaking the Engagement

This is the book we have all been waiting for: the definitive history of the sea change in American policy toward China during the past half century from engagement to competitive rivalry. Shambaugh's book is objective, detailed, and valuable reading for everyone worried about the future of US-China relations. * Susan Shirk, Emeritus Chair, 21st Century China Center, UC San Diego, and the author of Overreach: How China Derailed its Peaceful Rise *
The U.S. sees China as the pacing challenge in our strategic competition. But China is also a puzzle. Why did our strategy of Engagement fail? No one is better placed to solve this puzzle than David Shambaugh in this well-informed and very readable account. Anyone interested in our great power competition with China must read this book. * Joseph S. Nye, Former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School and author of A Life in the American Century *
This monumental tour d'horizon of the rise and fall of Engagement gives readers a vivid sense of how radically US-China relations have changed over the last decade. By artfully parsing the forces that have rendered the US-China relationship so fraught, Shambaugh helps us understand the complexity and challenges that Xi Jinping's China presents to the United States. One of the best books available on American China policy. * Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society *
David Shambaugh is one of today's most respected and influential thinkers on China. His decades of research, teaching and leadership in the field make for an unparalleled dive into the development and fracturing of the world's most important bilateral relationship. If understanding our past reveals much about our future, then this brilliant analysis should be considered required reading in understanding one of history's most consequential geopolitical megatrends. * Jon Huntsman, Former Ambassador to China, Russia, Singapore, and Governor of Utah *
David Shambaugh's Breaking the Engagement is a must-read for anyone interested in U.S.-China relations, how we got here, and what the United States needs to do to gird itself for the coming China shocks. It is fact-filled, accessible, and lays out a plan of action that is doable and smart. * John Pomfret, Former Washington Post China Correspondent and author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, from 1776 to the Present *
Few American scholars have a better understanding of China than Mr. Shambaugh. So when the George Washington University professor tells us that the official U.S. strategy of engagement with Beijing is dead-'D-E-A-D'-we had better pay attention. * Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal *
"Shambaugh's book is a valuable survey of the history of U.S. engagement with Beijing and the subsequent-and ongoing-China policy debate. * Paul Heer, Decipher Brief *
...brilliant and timely... * Nayan Chanda, Global Asia Review *
Required reading for the new Cold War. * Kirkus *
Required reading for the new Cold War. * Kirkus *
In this deeply researched book, Shambaugh provides persuasive solutions to two enduring puzzles in the relationship between China and the United States. Shambaugh's research also yields an important and more counterintuitive finding: too much engagement breeds suspicion, disenchantment, and eventually disengagement. The book is further enlivened with a rich collection of anecdotes from Shambaugh's own history of ups and downs in dealing with China as a student, scholar, and policy adviser. * Elizabeth Economy, Foreign Affairs *
In this deeply researched book, Shambaugh provides persuasive solutions to two enduring puzzles in the relationship between China and the United States: What explains the more than century-long oscillating pattern of engagement, disenchantment, and reengagement in U.S.-Chinese relations? And why, after four decades of deepening engagement, do the two countries find themselves in a period of disengagement and rivalry? * Foreign Affairs *