The Legitimacy Battlefield: how armed groups leverage violence and values in the quest for international recognition

Abstract

How armed groups legitimise themselves on the international stage is a critical question given the considerable influence they wield in global politics. Yet, it has seldom been systematically investigated. By addressing this question, this thesis fills a gap on the empirical understanding and theorisation of the rebels’ international legitimacy politics. This lacuna persists at the intersection of International Relations (IR), legitimacy theory, and conflict research. The study challenges the marginalisation of armed groups in legitimacy research in IR and exposes the limitations of classical legitimacy theory in contexts of political disorder where armed groups are the agents seeking legitimacy. The study also critiques traditional IR and conflict research perspectives in which rebels’ foreign politics is often viewed from a state-centric lens or compartmentalised. While emerging debates in conflict research have paid attention to rebel legitimacy beyond the domestic terrain, these debates have fallen short of advancing a holistic understanding of the matter. The thesis, by contrast, eschews the outside-in analysis of armed groups as it develops a heuristic framework—integrating armed action, identity projection, and communication strategies—to unravel the intricacies of their legitimacy. Through a comparative case study of the key conflict players, the Syrian Kurdish People’s Defence Units (YPG) and the Afghan Taliban, utilising in-depth interviews and textual analysis of primary sources, this thesis yields four key insights. First, moving beyond the classical dyadic (two-actor) conceptualisation of legitimacy relations, rebel legitimacy is best understood as a triadic (three-actor) dynamic. Second, regional support serves as a stepping stone for international recognition. Third, although violence is a double-edged sword, it remains armed groups’ primary repertoire for contesting legitimacy. Fourth, rebels with values and identities deviating from Western norms face additional hurdles in their quest for international integration. Finally, the thesis’ emphasis on armed groups as agents co-shaping international relations, reveals two promising future research avenues. One of them is how armed groups influence inter-state relations. The other is how rebels act simultaneously as disruptors and reproducers of established power and normative configurations in international order. Exploring these avenues holds the potential for opening up new ways for understanding international relations and interrogating mainstream IR theorisation.