Why US diplomatic muscle could achieve more in Somalia than drone strikes

A military drone replica is displayed in front of the White House during a protest against drone strikes on January 12, 2019 in Washington, DC. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Paul D. Williams, George Washington University The United States has used airstrikes against al-Shabaab forces in Somalia since January 2007, including armed drone strikes from June 2011. From early 2017, …

In COVID’s shadow, global terrorism goes quiet. But we have seen this before, and should be wary

Alaa Al-Marjani/AAP Greg Barton, Deakin University Have we flattened the curve of global terrorism? In our COVID-19-obsessed news cycle stories about terrorism and terrorist attacks have largely disappeared. We now, though, understand a little more about how pandemics work. And ironically, long before the current pandemic, the language of epidemiology proved helpful in understanding by analogy the way in which …

legacy”>Public outrage deters Al-Shabaab more than counter-terror efforts. Here’s why

Hundreds gather for prayer at the scene of a massive truck bomb attack in Mogadishu in October 2017, the deadliest to hit conflict-torn Somalia. Mohammed Ibrahim Shire, University of Portsmouth In September 2014, a US drone strike killed Al-Shabaab’s most influential leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane. The immediate assumption was that Godane’s death would weaken the group and reduce its capacity …