Managing Dicult Allies: Successor Leaders and the Domestic Sources of Patron Inuence

Foreign governments who provide political, military, and economic support to incumbent leaders in client states often nd themselves supporting weak, erratic and corrupt leaders, as the case with U.S. support of South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem or the case of Afghan President Hamid Karzai illustrate. Faced with the choice of a) abandoning a corrupt and inept incumbent leader, thus favoring the opposition’s political success and regime...