Operation Condor : The U.S. involvement - A rational strategy or a political powerplay?

Sammanfattning: During 1975-1989 a transnational state-terror operation was carried out by several South American states called Operation Condor. Declassified documents show that the U.S. government assisted the operation with communication and intelligence techniques. This case-study is with a theory consuming method aiming to analyze the internal decision process within the U.S. government to assist Condor. The analysis is based on two theoretical frameworks by Allison Graham, the “Rational Actor” and “Governmental Politics”. By studying the cold war doctrine, the objectives of the U.S. and the political actors behind the assessment the aim is to understand the structures that shaped the final decision. The conclusion shows that the Cold War, political crises and power relations between politicians played a major role in the internal decision process.