This book offers a case study in foreign policy change: It examines why the Bush administration suddenly redirected its nuclear nonproliferation policy toward North Korea in the aftermath of North Korea's first nuclear test in October 2006, abandoning its former confrontational approach in favor of a more accommodating line. Existing explanations of this course reversal draw on the security implications of a growing crisis on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. domestic politics, and changing decision-making dynamics within the Bush administration. Employing before-after comparison, the study refutes these accounts and it offers an alternative explanation: The Bush administration altered its nonproliferation policy toward North Korea toward a cooperative course because after the nuclear test, it perceived fundamentally improved prospects for fruitful cooperation on North Korea's denuclearization.

Autorentext

The Author: Jonas Schneider, born in 1981, studied Political Science at Jena University and the University of California, Berkeley (USA).

Inhalt

Contents: The Change in the Bush Administration's Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy toward North Korea - The Implications of North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program for the Security of the United States - The Prospects for Six-Party Cooperation - The Domestic Politics of U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy toward North Korea - The Decision-Making Process within the Bush Administration.