Tina Jönsson

• Similar policies may be found in different countries. This, in turn, is an indication that policies travel. But why are certain policies imitated while others are not? The author seeks to further our understanding of policy diffusion and its dynamics by investigating how foreign ideas are integrated and translated into new contexts, and how these imported ideas influence national policymaking and implementation. The National Drug Policies in Laos and Vietnam are studied in order to identify factors facilitating or restricting policy processes— and to discuss the effects of diffusion. Drawing on research in policy studies, constructivism, new institutionalism, and globalisation, the study aims to bridge the international/national divide in policymaking both theoretically and empirically. In an era of escalating globalisation and ever increasing flows of ideas, the author argues for the contextualisation of policymaking and problematisation of the often taken for granted rational actor approach inherent in much of the policy literature. Translating Foreign Ideas into Domestic Practices Pharmaceutical Policies in Laos and Vietnam