Publisher's Synopsis
Alex Thomson?s book Incomplete Engagement provides the most comprehensive analysis of the Reagan Administration?s South Africa policy yet to be published. Using both official sources and interviews with those decision-makers closest to this controversial policy, Incomplete Engagement gets to the roots of what exactly ?Constructive Engagement? was trying to achieve and how this strategy was implemented. - - Not since the Vietnam War has the United States seen such a bitter and divisive debate over foreign policy. With anti-apartheid activists and members of Congress pitched against the Reagan executive, ?Constructive Engagement? provided one of the most spectacular US foreign policy fights of modern times. - Thomson?s book avoids this acrimonious language of the 1980s, producing a more balanced account of Constructive Engagement. In this respect, Incomplete Engagement works well as an interesting case study for those studying wider US foreign policy issues. It is a book that will appeal to those who wish to learn more about what actually happened during this 1980s debate, and what the results of this policy fight were.
