Hi PJB,

Thanks for the references.

First, I'm going to classify paramilitaries by status: official, official-covert, official-clandestine, and unofficial. Then I am going to classify them by type: law enforcement, special operations, political, militia, non-military security, and criminal. I want to capture the broadest range possible of paramilitary forces while excluding terrorist organizations and regular police forces.

I have to devise a method to quantify sponsorship other than material and financial aid (i.e. political support). I also have to devise a number of operational activities to form the basis of the dataset measuring the influence on conflict outcomes.