This book describes how American international policy alternates between engagement and
disengagement cycles in world affairs. These cycles provide a unique way to understand assess
and describe fluctuations in America's involvement or non-involvement overseas. In addition to
its basic thesis the book presents a fair-minded account of four presidents' foreign policies
in the post-Cold War period: George H.W. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
It suggests recurring sources of cyclical change along with implications for the future. An
engaged or involved foreign policy entails the use of military power and diplomatic pressure
against other powers to secure American ends. A disengaged on noninvolved policy relies on
normal economic and political interaction with other states which seeks to disassociation from
entanglements.
