Governmental Re-organization in Counterinsurgency Context: Foreign Policy Program Transfer and Operation Switchback in South Vietnam |
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Authors: | Jon Strandquist |
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Affiliation: | International Relations/Political Science Department, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland |
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Abstract: | Foreign policy program transfer, the shifting of implementation responsibility for a foreign policy program from one organization to another, is a ubiquitous, yet under-studied, counterinsurgency phenomenon. This article conceptually develops program transfer as an important object of study; analyzes, using archival sources, an empirical case of program transfer, Operation Switchback, drawn from US counterinsurgency practice in South Vietnam; and formulates two preliminary theoretical claims related to program transfer: (1) transferred programs will tend to be altered in accordance with the characteristics of the gaining organization, and (2) program transfer may act as a signal or early-warning indicator of foreign policy change. |
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Keywords: | Foreign policy program transfer counterinsurgency US Army Special Forces CIA South Vietnam Operation Switchback organizational transfer governmental re-organization CIDG |
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