ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and evaluates, from the perspective of pertinent system, state, and individual level theory, the unfolding of the George W. Bush administration's strategy for addressing the North Korea nuclear issue up to the February 2007 Beijing agreement on first steps toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. It explores whether that policy has been "effective harmony of different goals" as the administration has claimed, or something more akin to "ostrich engagement", "drift", "mixed signals", "hostile neglect"or more recently "Clintonian appeasement". The apparent success of financial sanctions, coupled with the international shock wave that followed North Korea's missile and nuclear tests, might have been expected to give administration hawks the long-awaited opportunity to pursue their default policy. The Bush foreign policy has been plagued by a wide ranging battle over foreign policy between a coalition of hard-liners and another of pragmatists.
