‘Playing the System’: Agency and Everyday Negotiations during LTTE Rule
‘Playing the System’: Agency and Everyday Negotiations during LTTE Rule
Georg Frerks Niels Terpstra a Centre for Conflict Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht and The Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, The Netherlandsb Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The NetherlandsProf. Georg Frerks held the chair of Conflict Prevention and Conflict Management at Utrecht University and the chair of International Security Studies at The Netherlands Defence Academy till his retirement in 2021. Till mid 2014 he also held the chair of Disaster Studies at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Frerks served for nearly twenty years in the Dutch Foreign Service both at headquarters and abroad. He also was head of the Conflict Research Unit of The Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ in the Hague. Frerks focuses on conflict and conflict management as well as on international and national conflict-related policies and interventions, and The international security architecture. During his period at Wageningen University he has worked on natural and man-made disasters and humanitarian emergencies. Recently he has worked on rebel governance especially by the LTTE in Sri Lanka. Frerks has (co-)authored or (co-)edited 25 academic books, over 120 journal articles and book chapters, and 90 policy reports and monographs in his field of expertise. Frerks has directed or participated in various policy-related studies and evaluations in the field of conflict and peacebuilding and participated on the boards of several national and international conflict and peace related NGOs.Dr. Niels Terpstra is Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies at the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (CICAM), Political Science Department, Radboud University. His research focuses on the dynamics of civil war, political violence, insurgency, and terrorism. He is particularly interested in governance and legitimation practices of non-state armed groups during and after civil war. Furthermore, he is interested in foreign policy, particularly the political and strategic dimensions of peace- and state-building missions. Terpstra’s dissertation on ‘Rebel Governance and Legitimacy in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka’ investigates how the Taliban in Afghanistan have governed territories under their control and how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) governed in Sri Lanka. Moreover, it investigates how rebel governance affects civilian compliance with a rebel group and what this means in terms of legitimacy, authority, and state formation processes. Terpstra has published in the journals Small Wars & Insurgencies, Civil Wars, Peacebuilding, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Modern Asian Studies. He co-edited a special issue with Nelson Kasfir and Georg Frerks on ‘Armed Groups and Multi-layered Governance,’ published in Civil Wars in 2018. Terpstra has field research experience in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Colombia.