Niels TerpstraRadboud University | RU · Department of Political Science
Niels Terpstra
dr.
About
14
Publications
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152
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Citations since 2017
Introduction
Dr. Niels Terpstra is Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies at the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (CICAM). His research focuses on civil wars, political violence, rebel governance, rebel legitimacy, peace-building, and state-building.
Publications
Publications (14)
This article examines the conditions that foster state-insurgent cooperation in rebel governance. State-insurgent cooperation is puzzling because it can alienate hardliners, undermine the parties’ legitimacy, reveal sensitive information, and cause autonomy losses. We propose that conflict parties are more likely to discount these costs when they h...
This paper addresses processes of delegitimation and counter-legitimation by which existing forms of governance and their claimed legitimacy are challenged by a variety of actors. It pays attention to how legitimacy is framed, challenged and attacked by those actors
from below, and examines contemporary empirical examples of the proclaimed ‘Western...
In geval van dreiging is het verleidelijk om de noodtoestand af te
kondigen. Ofschoon de noodtoestand een juridische grondslag kent, is
de uitwerking en doorwerking ervan niet op voorhand duidelijk. De
auteurs laten zien dat de betekenis van noodmaatregelen van land tot
land verschilt, en dat de noodtoestand vooral door politiek-bestuurlijke
a...
This article focuses on rebel governance and rebel legitimacy during civil war. It investigates how external intervention in support of an incumbent government and withdrawal of external forces shape rebel legitimacy dynamics and rebels’ opportunities to govern. It adopts a longitudinal perspective on Afghanistan’s Taliban, analyzing three phases o...
Even though Kunduz province in Afghanistan was under relatively firm government control in 2011, the Taliban insurgency was able to consolidate its power throughout the province in the years that followed and to temporarily take-over the provincial capital of Kunduz city for the first time since the U.S.-led intervention in 2001. Based on field res...
In this report, we examine the main developments in the police and justice sectors in Kunduz province, Afghanistan between 2010 and 2018. The report is based on an extensive literature review and synthesis. The sources studied include academic publications, research reports of Afghan and international organizations, NGO reports, government publicat...
The article is available open access in the journal of Peacbuilding: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21647259.2019.1620907
Abstract: This article focuses on external statebuilding through judicial reform. It contributes to the existing literature on state- and peacebuilding with an analysis of two local realities that affect judicial r...
This article focuses on how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) insurgency performed de facto sovereignty and public authority in Northeastern Sri Lanka. It is situated within the wider academic debate on governance by state and non-state actors. We venture to unravel the complex linkages between the LTTE's governance practices and legitima...
The full article is available open access: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698249.2017.1419611-
Abstract: In this special issue we broaden the academic debate on rebel governance by examining additional armed actors – militias, police and foreign intervenors, and the ‘layers’ of governance they add. We develop the notion of ‘multi-la...
This study commissioned by the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) of the Dutch Ministriy of Justice and Security analyses the experiences of Western-particularly Western European-countries upon declaring a state of emergency in response to terrorist threats. Its purpose is to identify relevant lessons that the Netherlands can learn...
The full article is available open access: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698249.2017.1393265
Abstract: Based on extensive fieldwork in Sri Lanka, we analyze how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) acquired legitimacy and how legitimation impacts civilian perceptions of the rebels. Despite the LTTE’s reliance on coercion to...
In debates on governance in weak or fragile states, non-state actors are often overlooked. A particularly under-recognized governance actor is the rebel group. Rebel groups have substantive involvement in several governance domains, and as such acquire authority and legitimacy among their constituents. While previous research shows that non-state g...
Projects
Projects (2)
Recent scholarship on civil war has identified the concept of ‘rebel governance’ in order to better understand relations between non-state armed groups and civilians. In general, researchers have examined the variety of methods through which rebels regulate civilians in areas they control. In this project we widen the focus by including other armed groups that are either linked to one of the conflict parties or may emerge and operate more or less autonomously. We ask how these additional armed forces influence the governance of civilians and how that reinforces or undercuts the strategic objectives of the actors involved. In response, we propose the notion of ‘multi-layered governance’ in an effort to specify what each armed actor adds.
