The End of Engagement: America's China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989

After the Cold War, America's leaders hoped Russia and China could be integrated into the rules-based international order and might even become more like the West. By the late 2010s, their optimism was dead. In The End of Engagement, David M. McCourt traces the intense personal, professional, and policy struggles over China and Russia in U.S. foreign policy since 1989. Drawing on 170 original interviews with America's China and Russia experts--from former policymakers and diplomats to prominent think tankers and academics--McCourt chronicles the rise and recent fall of "engagement" with Beijing and Moscow. While there are numerous explanations for why America moved away from engagement with China and Russia in the last decade, McCourt shows that none consider how important foreign policy knowledge communities have been in impacting policy. Adopting a unique, sociological perspective, this book offers an intimate look into the world of America's national security experts as they have struggled to make sense of changes in China and Russia and the remaining question of what comes next.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Engaging China and Russia since 1989 Part I Rethinking Engagement Chapter 1: What Was Engagement? Chapter 2: From Engagement to Strategic Competition Part II The End of Engagement with China Chapter 3: Beyond Hawks and Doves: Polarization in the U.S. China Fields Chapter 4: Professional Status Oppositions and the Wisdom of Engagement Chapter 5: Engagement Is Personal Part III Ending Engagement with Russia Chapter 6: The Russia-We-Have, or the Russia-We-Want? Polarization in the Russia Field Chapter 7: The Politics of U.S. Russia Expertise Chapter 8: Engagement with Russia Is Personal Conclusion: After Engagement

About the Author :
David M. McCourt is an international political sociologist and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. His primary research interests lie with the social sources of state action in international politics, with an empirical focus on the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. He completed his graduate work at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Between 2012 and 2014, he was a Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Sheffield (UK). He is the author, among other works, of Britain and World Power Since 1945 (2014), American Power and International Theory at the Council on Foreign Relations, 1953-54 (2020), and The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory (2022).

Review :
The End of Engagement is an astonishing and pathbreaking study. Sociologist David McCourt digs beneath the veneer of Sino-American and US-Russia relations to examine the twin communities of America's leading China and Russia specialists themselves. He astutely reveals how these experts have grappled with the repressive and revisionist turns of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin--but, more importantly, how the longstanding American policies of 'engagement' of each power have been shaken and forced to adapt to disturbing new realities. This is political sociology at its best, the comparative perspective is illuminating, and it should be carefully read inside and outside the Washington Beltway. The End of Engagement stands as a landmark contribution to the study of U.S. foreign policy. Its sociological lens challenges established narratives, providing nuanced insights into the intersections of expertise, power, and international strategy. For scholars, policymakers, and readers seeking a deeper understanding of the mechanisms shaping policy decision-making, McCourt's work is both essential and thought-provoking, opening new avenues for exploring how epistemic communities influence the architecture of global relations. McCourt provides an interesting perspective, and his interviews add an important dimension to the still-unfolding story of the end of engagement and its consequences. McCourt's painstaking efforts to go beyond the 'hawks versus doves' classification and to examine the divisions within America's China and Russia fieldsis admirable.