The law and politics of funding armed groups in Syria: how states (fail to) counter terrorism

This article examines the political and legal controversies around a counterterrorism programme conducted by Dutch government to support so-called moderate groups in Syria between 2015 2018. The centred question how was able define armed distinguish them from terrorist organizations. objective of is take up this unpack Ministry Foreign Affairs constructed justified their definition material for deployed programme, against existing definitions terrorism funding embedded European financing regulations. Connecting debates materiality both International Relations Law, follows material-semiotic practices through which come into being. empirical analysis draws on interviews with professionals, policy documents court transcripts, provides detailed overview multiple even conflicting are state. Taking interdisciplinary approach based analysis, I propose that controversy defining reflects Eurocentric assumption about knowledge responsibilities Western state War Terror. While empirics grounded context, my relevant countries who engaged similar operations 2018, as well future efforts targeting groups.