Illusions of Control - Dilemmas in Managing U.s. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria

Drawing on extensive field research and hundreds of interviews with stakeholders, Erica L. Gaston unpacks the challenges of attempting to control proxy forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

List of contents

Preface: On the Heels of Militia Mobilization
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Theoretical Framework: Agency Theory Versus Foreign Policy Analysis
2. Bargaining Moments and Structures: Comparing the Sons of Iraq and the Afghan Local Police
3. Searching for Unicorns: Risk Mitigation in the Internal and External Policy Deliberations Over Syrian Armed Groups
4. Standard Operating Procedures and Exceptions to the Rule: Organizational Lenses and Bureaucratic Transfer, from Local Force Initiatives to Counterterrorism Auxiliaries
5. Change Over Time: Transnational Networks, the Leahy Law, and Human Rights Checks for Local and Substate Forces
6. Foreign Players in the Mix: Direct and Indirect Bargaining and Influence Strategies by Non-U.S. Governments
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Notes
Index

About the author

Erica L. Gaston is senior policy advisor and head of the Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace Programme at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. She is also an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a nonresident fellow at both the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Global Public Policy Institute.

Summary

Drawing on extensive field research and hundreds of interviews with stakeholders, Erica L. Gaston unpacks the challenges of attempting to control proxy forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

Product details

• Authors: Erica L. Gaston
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.06.2024
• EAN: 9780231210133
• ISBN: 978-0-231-21013-3
• No. of pages: 424
• Series: Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; USA, Afghanistan, Political Science, HISTORY / Military / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Terrorism, Syria, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Middle Eastern, HISTORY / Military / United States, Warfare & defence, Terrorism, armed struggle, United States of America, USA, Iraq, Warfare and defence