Somalia: Creating Space for Fresh Approaches to Peacebuilding

john paul lederach
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Policy recommendations
• Delineate with greater specificity the theory of change that supports terrorist
listings with a particular focus on how it will meaningfully and strategically
engage the affected populations. The assessment of the basic theory requires a
careful compilation of evidence that assesses, in particular, whether it has increased
or decreased a capacity to recruit, solidified or weakened more extremist
leadership, and provided for shifts in the wider population toward nonviolent
strategies of social change.
• Develop a clear end-game scenario for how geographies most affected or
controlled by designated organizations will shift the justifying narratives and
behavior from violence (and the use of terrorism in particular) toward nonviolent
processes. This requires a specific strategy for how isolation contributes
to constructive shifts in the wider civil society most affected by the terrorist
listings.
• Based on what now appears to be compelling evidence, pinpoint how isolation
of leaders (similar for example to policing approaches for criminal behavior)
combines with robust engagement of local populations.
• Develop strategies that constructively impact the rise of second tier and
secondary leadership. Given that many of these movements rely heavily on
youth, a strategy that strategically approaches the growth of new and alternative
leadership requires significant and varied approaches to engagement. Isolation
as a blanket policy seems to hold little, if any, strategy for how alternative or
future leaders will be different.
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