Summary

Policy options discussed by decision makers inside and outside Somalia are based primarily on global and regional security concerns. They tend to overlook the local complexities and the potential for nonviolent conflict transformation that exist in the context.

In particular, the black listing of al-Shaabab prevents one of the main stakeholders to participate in the mainstream political process and discourages interest in dialogue from all sides. This means that state and non-state actors are self-censoring themselves, in fear of the consequences that engagement with a proscribed organisation might generate. There is a scarcity of alternative perspectives among policy makers that could encourage the design of an inclusive peace process in Somalia. These challenges are presented and analysed in a series of articles that has come out of collaboration between the Life & Peace Institute and the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, USA.