Considering Political Engagement with Al-Shabaab in Somalia
FJ Kolapo
The terrorist attack by Al-Shabab in the Hiran region just this week seemingly indicates that not much progress has been made regarding this effort. I hope that this does not discourage the government to continue to seek dialogue opportunities and openings for political engagement with al-Shabab.
In notes that I took when I began reading Alan Wolfes 2011 book, Political Evil: What It Is and How to Combat It, I found a comment that I made on the margin still very relevant regarding how the world responds to some of the worst crises plaguing us today:
When we analytically turn all terrorists into animals and subhumans, we set ourselves up to justify acting animalistically and subhumanly against them and thus simply join them to create a disorderly animalistic world rather than a better one that we think we are enforcing or ensuring. This we justify with some high-sounding morality talk.
I endorse his idea of properly analysing the nature of the evil we face to establish their distinctives so that society can identify and isolate points of rational engagement and negotiation with the evil actors over their political goals and thereby work towards ending the progress of evil rather than prolonging it.