Abstract: The subject of the study is the foreign policy expertise of the United States of America in the interwar period on the problem of the development of national liberation movements on the outskirts of European empires and methods of fighting them. This perspective allows us to take a new look at the problems of ensuring the internal security of global empires, their position in the Versailles-Washington system of international relations, the prospects for the development of colonial possessions and mandated territories, as well as the specifics of relations of empires with each other and with the United States (for the first time actively intervened in the conflict on European territory and in the construction of a new configuration of international relations). And also to determine the place and role of foreign policy expertise, its main characteristics and features in the analysis of colonial conflicts and methods of their resolution. The article uses such methods of historical research as problem-analytical, synchronic, comparative-historical and methods of system analysis. The main conclusions of the conducted research are that there was no unanimity among experts and in relation to the future of colonial systems. The obviousness of the collapse of the “old order” in metropolis-colony relations forced experts to look for possible options to minimize this process. Here the concepts of “civilizational mission” of empires were expressed, which were characterized by undoubted racism towards colonial peoples, the purpose of which was “Europeanization” of local elites with the subsequent transfer of powers to manage the former colonies. In addition, US think tanks and expert organizations of the interwar period played a leading role in the formation of the so-called “special relations” between the United States and Great Britain.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the expert opinions of RAND Corporation prepared during the warfare against terrorism. Their characteristic feature consists in reference to the colonial experience of the leading European powers in counter-insurgency. Special attention is given to the analysis of two vectors in the activity RAND Corporation: publication of the articles of 1960s-1970s dedicated to the problems of anti-insurrection and adaptation of the colonial experience of counter-insurgency activity to the new conditions of warfare against terrorism in the Near and Middle East. The selected methodology demonstrates how the leading powers perceive the role of colonial knowledge in ensuring domestic security in the “third world” countries (it refers to the lessons of history analyzed on the expert level within the framework of historical modeling of asymmetric conflicts). The conclusion is made that the expert opinions of RAND Corporation virtually resemble the key expert opinions of the time of Vietnam War, but adjusted them to the current conditions of warfare against terrorism. The aforementioned works were rather used for justification of the decisions of political and military elites, and clarification of the context and origins of the new American anti-insurrection doctrine to mainstream audience, as well as to the U. S. officials and commanders inexperienced in subjection of the rebels.