This dissertation is concerned with the idea of global policy transfer, as it has increasingly appeared in the literature of policy studies, and has been used to understand recent educational policy transformations around the world. To carry out this investigation, I have conducted a case study of higher education in Paraguay in order to determine the uses and limitations of the transfer literature in explaining policy developments in the Paraguayan higher education sector since 1989. As an exploratory study, this dissertation does not seek to provide specific recommendations in terms of specific programs or policy reform. Instead, it explores the possibilities of using the notion of policy transfer, and the conceptual discussions that surround it, in understanding various policy shifts and continuities that take place at a specific national setting which could potentially result from a diverse array of global networks and interactions. The key arguments in this dissertation suggest that, in the current period of globalization, policy environments within the borders of the nation-state cannot be adequately understood without an understanding of the role that externalities--exogenous factors and institutions--play in the processes of policy making. However, the influence of those external situations, as in the case of international transfer of policy, is always contingent on the national policy environment that past and present activities of national institutions within specific sectors of policy making have helped produce. Both global and local processes, in terms of public policy, are thus, always contextually located, as is the nature of the relationship between the two, and this is an insight that is fundamental to an understanding of the concept of global policy transfer. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]