Talking with terrorists, talking with governments: insurgent perspectives on legitimisation and engagement

ABSTRACT

It is often claimed that “talking to terrorists legitimises terrorism”. But analysts too often assume that insurgents seek standard forms of liberal-legalistic legitimisation through engagement with the state. From a Weberian perspective, however, liberal-legalistic legitimacy is one of a myriad of symbolic and practical grounds for legitimisation. This paper takes a political sociological approach to the problem of legitimacy in “terrorist” conflicts through a comparative analysis of Irish republican and Basque separatist efforts to end the campaigns of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA). There are three principal findings. First, violent insurgents often reject liberal-legalistic legitimatisation and instead seek recognition of their capacity to shape the trajectories of conflicts – and therefore recognition of their centrality to ending them. Second, the pursuit by violent insurgents for recognition of capacity often comes into conflict with their non-violent allies’ pursuit of liberal-legalistic legitimisation, which can hinder peace-making. Finally, the pursuit of these forms of legitimisation structure peace processes in that armed groups seeking recognition demand direct talks with governments, while legitimacy-seeking non-violent insurgents emphasise engagement with political parties and non-violent organisations. The relative balance between symbolic goals thus shapes the practice of peace-making in such conflicts.

KEYWORDS:

• Legitimacy
• conflict transformation
• negotiations
• Northern Ireland
• the Basque Country

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Gustav Brown, Rogers Brubaker, Yuval Feinstein, Michael Mann, Bill Roy, Andreas Wimmer, Zeynep Ozgen, and, of course, the anonymous reviewers for their critiques of and contributions to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In this manuscript, I use “terrorism” primarily to refer to the rhetorical definition of violent conflicts, rather than as a tactic in violent insurgency.

2. All translations from Spanish and Basque are the author’s.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Philippe Eugène Duhart

Philippe Eugène Duhart (PhD, University of California, Los Angeles) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Colgate University. His research examines the practical and symbolic barriers to peace-making in terrorist conflicts, focused in particular on the divergent outcomes of peace-making efforts in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country of Spain.