Conflict Politics Violence

Transition Development Territory

The state Policy Research

Identity Sovereignty

Bart Klem

Publications

Many of the publications below are behind the paywall of academic publishing. If you do not have access to these, please do not hesitate to contact me on email (or through researchgate).

Performing Sovereign Aspirations

Performing Sovereign Aspirations

Klem, Bart (2024) Performing Sovereign Aspirations: Tamil Insurgency and Postwar Transition in Sri Lanka. In print with Cambridge University Press.


Democratic politics and devolution

Democratic politics and devolution

Klem, Bart (2024) ‘Unravelling the Constitutional Settlement: Devolution, Democracy and Patronage in Eastern Sri Lanka,’ Contemporary South Asia. Forthcoming.


Legal identity in unrecognised states

Legal identity in unrecognised states

Sosnowksi, Marika & Bart Klem (2024) ‘Legal Identity in a Looking-Glass World: Documenting Citizens of Aspirant States’, Citizenship Studies 28(1), introduction to special issue.

  • Download
  • Type: Journal article (intro to special issue)

Demos at War

Demos at War

Klem, Bart (2022) “Demos at War: Revisiting the Democratic Boundary Problem with a
Performative Lens”, Social Sciences and Humanities Open 8: 100507.


Decay and morality

Decay and morality

Klem, Bart (2021) ‘Decay or Fresh Contact? The Morality of Mixture after War’s End’, in Ghassan Hage (ed) Decay, pp. 73-85. Durham: Duke University Press.


Legal identity and rebel governance

Legal identity and rebel governance

Fortin, Katharine, Bart Klem and Marika Sosnowski (2021) “Legal identity and rebel governance: A comparative perspective on lived consequence of contested sovereignty”, in Tendayi Bloom and Lindsey N. Kingston (eds) Statelessness, governance, and the problem of citizenship, pp. 125-137. Manchester: Manchester University Press.


Borneo highland borderlands

Borneo highland borderlands

Klem, Bart (2021) “‘A Garuda in my Heart, a Tiger in my Stomach’: Brokering an Informal Economic Border Enclave in the Borneo Highlands”, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology,
22(4): 255-275.


Marginal placeholders

Marginal placeholders

Klem, Bart & Thiruni Kelegama (2020) Marginal placeholders: peasants, paddy and ethnic space in Sri Lanka’s post-war frontier, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 47(2): 346-365.


War and denial

War and denial

Klem, B. (2018) Book review of Seoighe’s “War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka”, Contemporary South Asia, forthcoming.

  • Type: Book review

Buddhism and constiutionalism

Buddhism and constiutionalism

Klem, B. (2018) Book review of Schonthal’s “Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law: The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka”, Journal of Law and Religion, forthcoming.

  • Type: Book review

Sovereign Encroachment

Sovereign Encroachment

Klem, B. and S. Maunaguru (2018) ‘Public Authority under Sovereign Encroachment: Community Leadership in War-Time Sri Lanka’, Modern Asian Studies, 52(3): 784-814.

  • Download
  • See also my introduction to this special issue with Bert Suykens: "Public authority in South Asia"
  • Type: Journal article

Public Authority in South Asia (intro to special issue)

Public Authority in South Asia (intro to special issue)

Klem, B. and B. Suykens (2018) ‘The Politics of Order and Disturbance: Public Authority, Sovereignty and Violent Contestation in South Asia’, introduction to a special issue in Modern Asian Studies, 52(3): 753-783.

  • Download
  • This is the introduction to a special issue in MAS. See also my contribution to that special issue with Sidharthan Maunaguru: "sovereign encroachment".
  • Type: Journal article

Political settlements, war and peace in Sri Lanka

Political settlements, war and peace in Sri Lanka

Klem, B. (2017) Elite bargains and political deals project: Sri Lanka case study. Report commissioned by the Stabilisation Unit or the British government.

  • Not publicly available
  • Type: Commissioned report.

The problem of peace

The problem of peace

Klem, B (2018) “The problem of peace and the meaning of ‘post-war’”, Conflict, Security & Development, 18(3): 233-255.


Sovereign Mimicry and Mutation

Sovereign Mimicry and Mutation

Klem, B. and S. Maunaguru (2017) ‘Insurgent Rule as Sovereign Mimicry and Mutation: Governance, Kingship and Violence in Civil Wars’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 59(3): 629-656.

  • Download
  • For our "behind the scenes" reflections on the political dynamics and positionality issues associated with this article, please click here: Being in the Know.
  • Type: Journal article

Mediating the Margins

Mediating the Margins

Goodhand, J., B. Klem and O. Walton (2017) ‘Mediating the Margins: The Role of Brokers and the Eastern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka’s Post-war Transition’, Third World Thematics, 1(6): 817-836.


Religion and war

Religion and war

Spencer, J., J. Goodhand, S. Hasbullah, B. Klem, B. Korf, and T. Silva (2015) Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque: A Collaborative Ethnography of War and Peace. London: Pluto.


Showing one’s colours

Showing one’s colours

Klem, B. (2015) ‘Showing one’s colours: The political work of elections in post-war Sri Lanka,’ Modern Asian Studies, 49(4): 1091-1121.


Political geography of war's end

Political geography of war's end

Klem, B. (2014) ‘The political geography of war’s end: Territorialisation, circulation, and moral anxiety in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka’, Political Geography, 38(1): 33-45.

  • Download
  • No access to this journal? Feel free to contact me directly.
  • Type: journal article

Battlefields of method

Battlefields of method

Goodhand, J, B. Klem, and S. Sørbø (2014) ‘Battlefields of method: Evaluating Norwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka,’ in B. Bull, M. Kennedy-Chouane and O. Winckler (eds) Evaluation Methodologies for Aid in Conflict, pp. 61-84. London: Routledge.


Book review: Daniel Bass

Book review: Daniel Bass

Klem, B. (2013) ‘Everyday ethnicity in Sri Lanka: Up-Country Tamil Identity Politics’, Pacific Affairs, 86(4): 939-940.


Eye of the Storm

Eye of the Storm

Klem, B. (2012) ‘In the Eye of the Storm: Sri Lanka’s Front-Line Civil Servants in Transition’, Development and Change, 43(3): 695-717.


In the wake of war

In the wake of war

Klem, B. (2012) In the Wake of War: The Political Geography of Transition in Eastern Sri Lanka. PhD dissertation at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.


Book review: Sarah Holt

Book review: Sarah Holt

Klem, B. (2011) ‘Aid, Peacebuilding and the Resurgence of War: Buying Time in Sri Lanka’, Civil Wars, 13(4): 470-472.


Tsunami and peace

Tsunami and peace

Frerks, G. and B. Klem (2011) ‘Muddling the Peace Process: The Political Dynamics of the Tsunami, Aid and Conflict’, in J. Goodhand, B. Korf, and J. Spencer (eds) Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka: Caught in the Peace Trap? pp. 168-182. London: Routledge.


Book review: Asoka Bandarage and Camilla Orjuela

Book review: Asoka Bandarage and Camilla Orjuela

Klem, B. (2009) ‘Identity Politics, Peacebuilding and Foreign Involvement in Sri Lanka’, Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 2(2): 128-131.


Pawns of Peace

Pawns of Peace

Goodhand, J, B. Klem and G. Sørbø (2011) Pawns of Peace: Evaluation of Norwegian Peace Efforts in Sri Lanka, 1997-2009. Report 5/2011 Evaluation, commissioned by NORAD.


Islam, Politics and Violence

Islam, Politics and Violence

Klem, B. (2011) ‘Islam, Politics and Violence in Eastern Sri Lanka,’ Journal of Asian Studies, 70(3):730-753.

  • Download
  • No access to this journal? Feel free to contact me directly.
  • Type: journal article

Lessen van de Sri Lankaanse Tragedie

Lessen van de Sri Lankaanse Tragedie

Klem, B., R. Pieneman, and S. Kamerling (2011) ‘Lessen van de Srilankaanse tragedie: een voorproefje van mondiale veranderingen op het gebied van veiligheid en ontwikkeling?’ Internationale Spectator, 65(10): 539-534.


The gift of disaster

The gift of disaster

B. Korf, S.H. Hasbullah, P. Hollenbach and B. Klem (2010) ‘The commodification of good intentions in post-tsunami Sri Lanka,’ Disasters, 34(S1): S60-S77.

  • Download
  • No access to this journal? Feel free to contact me directly.
  • Type: journal article

Religion, conflict and boundary politics in Sri Lanka

Religion, conflict and boundary politics in Sri Lanka

J. Goodhand, B. Korf and B. Klem (2009) ‘Religion, conflict and boundary politics in Sri Lanka,’ European Journal for Development Research, 21(5): 679-898.

  • Download
  • No access to this journal? Feel free to contact me directly.
  • Type: journal article

Muddling the peace process

Muddling the peace process

G. Frerks and B. Klem (2011) ‘The politics of the tsunami, aid and conflict,’ in: J. Goodhand, B. Korf and J. Spencer (eds.) Conflict, aid and peacebuilding in Sri Lanka: Caught in the peace trap? pp. 168-182. London: Routledge.


The struggle after Combat

The struggle after Combat

B. Klem and P. Douma with G. Frerks, G. Gompelman and S. van Laar (2008) The role of NGOs in DDR processes: Synthesis Study. The Hague: Cordaid.


G. Frerks, G. Gompelman and S. van Laar with B. Klem (2008) The role of NGOs in DDR processes: Afghanistan Case Study. The Hague: Cordaid.


P. Douma and S. van Laar with B. Klem (2008) The role of NGOs in DDR processes: DR Congo Case. The Hague: Cordaid.


B. Klem with P. Douma and S. van Laar (2008) Study The role of NGOs in DDR processes: Sierra Leone Case Study. The Hague: Cordaid.


Pride and prejudice

Pride and prejudice

B. Klem and S. van Laar (2008) ‘An Afghan and Liberian case study on civil-military interaction in post-conflict recovery,’ in M. Bollen and B. Rietjens (eds) Civil-military interfaces: A shared platform for experience and research, pp. 129-146. London: Ashgate.


Evaluatie Stabiliteitsfonds 2004 – 2005

Evaluatie Stabiliteitsfonds 2004 – 2005

B. Klem and G. Frerks (2007) Evaluatie Stabiliteitsfonds: 2004-2005. Wageningen/Amsterdam: WUR/BKR (in Dutch, with English summary).


Principles and pragmatism

Principles and pragmatism

G. Frerks, B. Klem, S. van Laar and M. van Klingeren (2006) Civil-military action in Afghanistan and Liberia. Utrecht/Amsterdam: UU/BKR.


Possible Sri Lankan Futures and Patterns of Displacement.

Possible Sri Lankan Futures and Patterns of Displacement.

B. Klem (2006) Possible Sri Lankan Futures and Patterns of Displacement. Writenet report for UNHCR.


Conditioning Peace among Protagonists

Conditioning Peace among Protagonists

G. Frerks and B. Klem (2006) A Study into the Use of Peace Conditionalities in the Sri Lankan Peace Process. The Hague: Clingendael.


From basic relief to comprehensive peace

From basic relief to comprehensive peace

B. Klem (2006) ‘The story of ZOA Refugee Care in Sri Lanka,’ in B. Schennink and G. van der Haar (eds) Working on peace-building and conflict prevention: Experiences and dilemmas of Dutch NGOs. Amsterdam: Dutch University Press.

  • Type: Book chapter

Aid, Peace and Conflict in Sri Lanka

Aid, Peace and Conflict in Sri Lanka

J. Goodhand and B. Klem with D. Fonseka, S.I. Keethaponcalan, and S. Sardesai (2005) Aid, peace and conflict in Sri Lanka. Washington DC: The Asia Foundation.


Muddling the Peace Process

Muddling the Peace Process

G. Frerks and B. Klem (2005) Post-tsunami Rehabilitation in War-torn Sri Lanka, CRU Policy Brief. Clingendael.


Wegwijs in de wereld van de hulp

Wegwijs in de wereld van de hulp

L. Schulpen and B. Klem (2005) Handboek internationale samenwerking. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers. (in Dutch)

  • Type: Book

Using PRSPs in Conflict Areas.

Using PRSPs in Conflict Areas.
B. Klem (2004) Using PRSPs in Conflict Areas. The Hague: Clingendael.

The Marawila Scenarios

The Marawila Scenarios
G. Frerks, M. Moquette, B. Klem and C. Devillers (2004) The Marawile Scenarios. Produced for the Donor Working Group in Sri Lanka.

Dealing with Diversity

Dealing with Diversity

G. Frerks and B. Klem (2004) Sri Lankan Discourses of Peace and Conflict. The Hague: Clingendael.

  • Type: Book

Children's Play

B. Klem and R. van der Kolk (2004) Children’s Play. (A film on a children’s reconciliation festival in Jaffna, Sri Lanka)