  Starting from the recently obtained 2PN accurate forms of the energy and
angular momentum fluxes from inspiralling compact binaries, we deduce the
gravitational radiation reaction to 2PN order beyond the quadrupole
approximation - 4.5PN terms in the equation of motion - using the refined
balance method proposed by Iyer and Will. We explore critically the features of
their construction and illustrate them by contrast to other possible variants.
The equations of motion are valid for general binary orbits and for a class of
coordinate gauges. The limiting cases of circular orbits and radial infall are
also discussed.
