The proposed paper deals with the issue of ‘recognition’ in rebel governed/controlled territories during civil war and post-war periods. Even though the issue of ‘recognition’ has been identified as an important aspect in the field of international law and international politics, it still remains under-investigated and atheoretical in the conventional literature of peace and conflict studies.
Cooperation and negotiation with rebel governments require a high level of confidence and attention for the host states, whereby the stakes are high in the sense that they risk losing their public support. On the other hand, official recognition of the rebel rulers as equal partners of negotiation and their access to the international legal space as corporate body is a challenge for the state authorities and international organisations.
Taking these facts on the state side into consideration, the issue of recognition also demonstrates a complex phenomenon on the rebel side. Lack of research on recognition of rebel rulers identifies that during civil wars the security issues of the given communities are the most crucial factor of public support to the rebel rulers. In contrary, during post-war periods (transitional periods) many other conflict issues become more visible, shaking the foundations of the rebel rulers, such as in the Sri Lankan LTTE case between 2001 and 2006.
The open question here requires both practical and theoretical functions which have been overseen by the peace research literature. It is to state that not only the elites of the conflict parties have had conflicting interests, but also, as the issue of recognition demonstrates, elites and the populace also have deeply rooted conflicting interests and motives.
In light of comprehensive field research findings on the Sri Lankan LTTE conflict, which have been acquired since 2013 in Sri Lanka, France, Germany and Norway; the proposed paper is an attempt to throw a light on the complex issue of recognition in the field of civil war research discussing the following question in a tangible fashion: What are the foundations and components of recognition for rebel rulers throughout the periods of civil war and transitional post-war?
