Militia Infiltration of the State: Loyalist Paramilitary Strategy in Northern Ireland

How can we explain militia infiltration of the state during armed conflict? ‘Militias’, ‘pro-state paramilitaries’ or ‘pro-government militias’ are non-state armed organisations that are in some way aligned with state counterinsurgency programmes during conflict . In this article we explore how militia interactions with insurgents inform the propensity for militia ‘infiltration’ of state institutions. We argue that the stronger the insurgents are vis-à-vis the militias the more incentives militias have to infiltrate state institutions. We also show how this is done. We demonstrate our argument through evidence from loyalist paramilitary infiltration of the British security forces in Northern Ireland.