The politics of legitimacy of armed groups

• Applicants: Dr. Stephan Hensell; Professor Dr. Klaus Schlichte
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2019 to 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424426045

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

Why are some non-state violent actors recognized by other governments and others not? This project addressed this question of the legitimacy of non-state violent actors. Designed as a case study comparison (Uganda, Western Sahara, Syria, Afghanistan) by the project staff and expanded to include eight additional case studies from international collaborators this project analysed the politics of legitimation of armed groups in different regional and historical contexts. Our research has produced two key findings in addition to the case studies: On the one hand, the project has made a theoretical and conceptual contribution to research on the construction and production of legitimacy in international politics, focusing on practices of claimmaking and claim-validation. On the other hand, the project has made a historically differentiated contribution to the theory of international relations, distinguishing between four historical periods since 1945, each of which represents different political conjunctures and opportunity structures in international politics: The era of decolonization, the Cold War, humanitarianism and the new sovereigntism. This historically differentiated theorization offers an alternative to purely formal theoretical approaches to International Relations that often fail to account for the variety of cases. The international cooperation and the comparative discussion that stretched over several years also resulted in an initial conceptualization of the collective research method of “reiterative case comparison.”

Publications

• Gewalt und Legitimität: Die internationale Politik bewaffneter Gruppen. Krieg im 21. Jahrhundert, 213-228. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
  Stephan Hensell/KlausSchlichte
  
• International orders and the strategies of legitimation of armed groups, Recherche et Études en Politique Internationale (REPI), Université libre de Bruxelles
  Stephan Hensell
  
• 9. Dezember 2021: Podiumsbeitrag “Lehren aus Afghanistan?“, Öffentliche Diskussionsveranstaltung, Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum, Leipzig
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• The historical mapping of armed groups’ recognition. Armed non-state actors and the politics of recognition. Manchester University Press.
  Hensell, Stephan & Klaus Schlichte
  
• Vortrag: Der revolutionäre Krieg und das alte System. Zur Normendynamik sozialrevolutionärer Kriege, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Conference for Arab Graduate Students in Western Universities, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar, Presentation: The International Legitimacy Politics of Armed Groups
  Ahmed Elsayed
  
• 1. Februar 2023: Podiumsdiskussion „Pazifismus oder Solidarität – zum Krieg in der Ukraine“, Evangelische Akademie Sachsen-Anhalt, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Magdeburg, Roncalli- Haus
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• 5-9 Sep 2023: EISA Pan-European conference on International Relations, University of Potsdam, Germany: The Kurdish YPG/PYD and the Taliban: A Comparison
  Ahmed Elsayed
  
• 7. November 2023: Podiumsdiskussion „Kriegsverdrängung“, Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, Veranstaltungsreihe „Fog of War“, Hamburg
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• 7.9.2023: Rebel Diplomacy in International Politics, Panel, European International Studies Association, Universität Potsdam
  Stephan Hensell
  
• 8.11.2023: “We have all the legitimacy of the world”: The Frente Polisario and the politics of legitimation in the Western Sahara conflict, Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade do Porto
  Stephan Hensell
  
• From the Mountains to the Élysée: The Precarious International Legitimacy of the Syrian Kurdish YPG and PYD. The Middle East Journal, 77(1), 53-77.
  Elsayed, Ahmed
  
• Impulsreferat zu Rüstungsfragen, Bürgerdialog des Auswärtigen Amts, Universum, Bremen
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Indien gibt es nicht. Die Vernachlässigung Osteuropas steht für ein größeres Problem der deutschen Sozialwissenschaften, in: Soziologie, Heft 4 /2023, Symposion Soziologische Perspektiven zu Osteuropa, 415-424
  Schlichte, Klaus
  
• Kommentar zu Mark Beissinger „The Revolutionary City“, Kolloquium Politische Theorie, Universität Bremen
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Kommentar zum Buch von Gilles Dorronsoro „Le gouvernement transnational de l’Afghanistan. Une si prévisible défaite“, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Podcast “Krieg unter der Lupe”, Folge zur Kriegsursachenforschung, organisiert von Studierenden der Universität Erfurt, 19. Mai 2023
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• 12-13 Dec 2024: Israel-Palestine, the Gaza War, and Germany, University of Bremen, Germany: Anti-Terrorism Discourse and the Gaza War
  Ahmed Elsayed
  
• Beliefs and International Legitimacy: The Janus Face of the Taliban’s Political Worldview and Value Rationality. InIIS Working Paper Nr. 45/2024. Bremen: InIIS
  Elsayed, Ahmed
  
• Der Westsahara Konflikt – 50 Jahre Kampf und Legitimitätspolitik (key note), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
  Stephan Hensell
  
• Societies in Transition: Law, Culture and Politics in the Middle East, University of Göttingen, Germany: The Janus Face of Taliban’s Worldview and Rationality
  Ahmed Elsayed
  
• Trusting Academic Concepts, Trusting the Academic Community: Challenges in the Context of Escalating Violence in Israel-Gaza, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, Presentation: The Terrorism Discourse in the Gaza War
  Ahmed Elsayed
  
• Vortrag und Diskussion „Krisen und Kriege im internationalen System“, Seminar für Lehrer im Abitursjahrgang, Lehrerfortbildungsstätte, Amt für Schule, Bremen
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Armed Groups and the Politics of International Legitimation. Oxford University PressOxford.
  Hensell, Stephan & Schlichte, Klaus
  
• Conclusions. Armed Groups and the Politics of International Legitimation, 260-274. Oxford University PressOxford.
  Hensell, Stephan & Schlichte, Klaus
  
• Conflict and Humanitarian Studies Conference, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar: Terrorism Framing of the War on Gaza
  Ahmed Elsayed
  
• Die vergessene Größe. Zum Ort der Gewalt in den Sozialwissenschaften, in: Abramowski, Ruth; Meyerhuber, Sylke; Rust, Ursula (Ed.), 2025: Gewaltfrei arbeiten und leben. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven, Theorien, empirische Erkenntnisse und Handlungsoptionen, Baden-Baden: Nomos, S. 31-48
  Schlichte, Klaus
  
• Diskussionsbeitrag Live-Sendung „Medien in Kriegszeiten: Wie gelingt Journalismus mit kühlem Kopf?“, Deutschlandfunk, 9. Mai 2025
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Fighting for Legitimacy. Armed Groups and the Politics of International Legitimation, 1-56. Oxford University PressOxford.
  Hensell, Stephan & Schlichte, Klaus
  
• Recognition on their Own Terms?. Armed Groups and the Politics of International Legitimation, 211-235. Oxford University PressOxford.
  Elsayed, Ahmed
  
• Vortrag “Germany’s Choices in Regional and International Securities. Influences and Alignments”, National Defence College, Jinja, Uganda
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Vortrag “La légitimité et la violence”, Workshop “Théories de la violence en dialogue avec la littérature congolaise”, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Vortrag „Die vergessene Größe. Zum Ort der Gewalt in den Sozialwissenschaften“, Reihe „Worlds of Contradiction“, Universität Bremen, Forum am Domshof
  Klaus Schlichte
  
• Western Sahara, the Polisario, and the Struggle for International Legitimacy. Armed Groups and the Politics of International Legitimation, 73-93. Oxford University PressOxford.
  Hensell, Stephan
  
• ‘When we became stronger, they listened more’. Armed Groups and the Politics of International Legitimation, 133-151. Oxford University PressOxford.
  Schlichte, Klaus