This book has its origins in a DPhil thesis at Oxford, submitted in 2008, and has since been much revised, updated, and augmented. It is based on a long period of research and engagement in Sri Lanka which began in 2002, and which continues to the time of writing in 2018. Over the years, I have benefited immensely from the generosity and support of many individuals and institutions, starting with my supervisors, Frances Stewart and David Washbrook, and the examiners, Nandini Gooptu and Jonathan Goodhand. I am very grateful for research funding provided by the Carnegie Corporation and the Wingate Trust, and to the institutional support provided by the University of Oxford, the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, the University of York, and the London School of Economics. The Department of International Development at the LSE kindly provided me with sabbatical leave in 2016-17 to complete the manuscript. More importantly, I would like to sincerely thank the many dear friends, colleagues, well-wishers, teachers, librarians, and students, in each of these institutions, who have provided guidance, assistance, and sustenance.

Parts of this book have appeared earlier in different forms. An earlier version of chapter 4 was published as a chapter in Stokke, K. and J. Uyangoda (eds.), Liberal Peace in Question: Politics of State and Market Reforms in Sri Lanka (Anthem). Chapter 5 had a previous life as ‘The Politics of Market Reform at a Time of Civil War’, Economic and Political Weekly 46 (49): 67-75. Composite parts drawn from chapters 6 and 7 have formed chapters in Newman, E., R, Paris, and O. Richmond (eds.), New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding (UNU Press), and in Raviraman, K., and R. Lipschutz (eds.), Corporate Social Responsibility: Comparative Critiques (Palgrave). An older version of chapter 8 was published as ‘Sectarian Socialism: The Politics of Sri Lanka's JVP’. Modern Asian Studies 44 (3): 567-602. I have drawn on arguments first developed in a 2015 article ‘Democracy, Development and the Executive Presidency in Sri Lanka’ Third World Quarterly, 36 (4): 670-690 in chapters 1, 2, and 9.

The responses I have had from these earlier publications has helped greatly in improving this text, and also in shaping my own intellectual evolution over this period. I must also thank two anonymous reviewers who provided very valuable and thorough comments on the manuscript.