Jason Sharman - Outsourcing Empire: How Company-States Made the Modern World

1. vii

WE BEGAN THIS BOOK while visiting the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics in the autumn of 2015, a visit made possible by Kirsten Ainley and George Lawson, who went well above and beyond both in their hospitality and their intellectual engagement with the project, at that time and since. Sharman also thanks Jeff Chwieroth for helping to make the visit possible. Our first public presentation of the project in the same year was at the School of Oriental and African Studies, generously hosted by Meera Sabaratnam.

Sharman is very grateful for feedback and support from colleagues at Griffith University during his time there until the end of 2016, especially from Ian Hall and Pat Weller. From 2017 the blend of International Relations and history expertise in Cambridge has made the Department of Politics and International Studies the perfect environment for thinking about and working on this project. In particular, Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Brendan Simms, and Ed Cavanagh provided very helpful corrections and pointers. More broadly, fellow Brisbane-to-Cambridge transplant Maja Spanu has been tireless in building a community of like-minded scholars in historical International Relations, a community that has had an important influence in shaping this book, and here particular thanks also to Ayse Zarakol and Duncan Bell. The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law also hosted a very positive session on the draft argument, thanks here to Sharmans Kings College colleagues Megan Donaldson and Surabhi Ranganathan.

Later in the project Sharman was invited to the present the argument at the Minnesota International Relations Colloquium, and thanks to Nisha Fazal, Pedro Accorsi Amaral, Nicauris Heredia Rosario, and Carly Potz-Nielsen for both their hospitality and comments on the project.

Over the years Hendrik Spruyt and Jesse Dillon Savage have been very discerning sounding-boards for many of the ideas that have gone into the book. Jon Pevehouse was kind enough to give us a good deal of considered feedback on a shorter version of our argument.

Phillips thanks his colleagues at the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland for their insightful and constructive critical feedback over several years as the books argument evolved through successive iterations. Special thanks are due to the participants of the St. Lucys History and Theory reading group and to Chris Reus-Smit especially for his continued mentorship and championing of International Relations scholarship working at the nexus of theory and history.

Scholarship depends on the selflessness of peer reviewers, and we were very fortunate to have two anonymous reviewers who spent a lot of time and effort in thoughtfully reading and responding to the draft manuscript in full. Thanks also to our incredibly professional indexer Dave Prout.

Kye Allen provided fantastic research assistance in sharpening the text and the bibliography; we could not have asked for more here.

We also acknowledge the Australian Research Council for crucial financial support through Discovery Project grant DP170101395.

At Princeton University Press thanks are due to Sarah Caro and Hannah Paul. We would also like to thank our agent James Pullen for his crucial support and advocacy.

Finally, Sharman thanks Bilyana for her steadfast support and general calming effect, all the more appreciated during and in the wake of the big move. Phillips thanks his mother and father for their love and support, as well as his surrogate Brisbane familyDaniel Celm and Sophie Devitt, and Joseph and Juliet Celm.

OUTSOURCING EMPIRE