The failure process of cyclic oxidation, which involves both the formation and spallation of oxides, has been treated using a mechanics approach, in which oxidation is described via a parabolic growth law, while spallation is treated in terms of a power law derived from a fracture mechanics analysis. The spallation model is formulated on the basis that shear cracks are induced by thermal stresses during the cooldown period of a thermal cycle. Some of the shear cracks develop wing tip cleavage cracks, whose propagation and linkage with other shear cracks lead to the formation of oxide fragments that separate from the oxidizing surface during cooldown. Using a mass balance, quantitative relations are obtained between the process driving force, which is the thermal stress, and the response parameters such as the weight of oxide spalled, weight gain, and weight loss of the oxide-forming element. Applications of the proposed model for predicting the cyclic oxidation behavior of metal substrates and coating materials are demonstrated by comparing model calculations against experimental data as well as against other models in the literature.