I'm looking to learn more about modern paramilitaries and thought this would be a good place to investigate.
If you have any good resources about paramilitaries or (contra)insurgencies I'd be interested in learning more about them.
The only reason I ask is because I've investigated this myself and the impartiality is difficult to avoid, so I find hyper-polarized material.
I was looking to learn about the Irish Repub Army, Tamil Tigers and similar groups (along with the contra's, who worked against them).
Are there any good texts (primary or not doesn't matter to me) that speak about their strategies or their otherwise discuss their activites/concepts/principles?
Thanks!
On the IRA (post 1969):
The best overall history is Richard English, Armed Struggle (2004).
Two good surveys by journalists are Peter Taylor, Provos (1997) and Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA (2002). Coogan is somewhat biased but had good contacts.
A useful examination of IRA strategy is M.L.R Smith, Fighting for Ireland: the military strategy of the Irish Republican Army (2002).
See also Rogelio Alonso, The IRA and armed struggle (2007) which is based on interviews with IRA members.
As a general text, I'd recommend Klejda Mulaj's Violent Non-state Actors in World Politics(2009)