Outsourced Empire

Andrew Thomson is a Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast and Research Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. He researches in the areas of militias and paramiltiaries, dynamics of violence in civil wars, US foreign policy, the Colombian conflict and peace process, counterinsurgency and "irregular" warfare and terrorism.

• Introduction1. US Empire: Statecraft in the Global South and Para-State Networks2. Cold War Statecraft and the Covert Principle: ''Power Moves Involved in the Overthrow of an Unfriendly Government?"3. US Counterinsurgency: The Growing Paramilitary Movement4. The Institutionalization of Para-State Networks: Nicaraguan Contras and Beyond5. Continuity After the Cold War: the Evolution of Para-State Networks6. The Irregular Warfare and the War on Terror: Consolidation into the FutureConclusion

'A very important and timely contribution' -- Jasmin Hristov, University of British Colombia, author of Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism (Pluto, 2016) 'Existing works which seek to explain US foreign policy in imperial terms do not pay sufficient attention to the consistent use of para-state networks. Thomson corrects this lacuna, through detailed empirical analyses ... an original and distinctive book' -- Sam Raphael, Department of Politics and IR, University of Westminster 'A timely and critical look at the evolution, formation, and role of US propelled paramilitarism ... a vital study' -- Jeb Sprague, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti (Monthly Review Press, 2012)