Breaking the Engagement

For over three decades following the 1972 rapprochement between the US and China, the two countries seemed to be steadily building a stronger relationship even accounting for periodic setbacks like the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The last decade, though, has seen a sharp increase in tensions between the two countries. What happened? In Broken Engagement: How China Lost America, author David Shambaugh examines the evolution, expansion, and disintegration of the American engagement coalition and policies toward China.