This seminar offers a fresh perspective on the roles and potential of youth within non-state armed groups, exploring both micro-level dynamics and broader implications for global peacebuilding. Based on field experiences across regions like Somalia, Yemen, Kenya, Indonesia, and Colombia, combined with insights from recent research, the presentation will challenge traditional narratives surrounding non-state armed groups and youth associated with non-state armed groups (YANSAG). By examining the complex identities and unique capacities of young disengaged combatants, this session will consider how their reintegration can contribute to sustainable peace. Emphasis will also be placed on how macro-level strategies and frameworks, including international policies and normative shifts, can better support the disengagement, reintegration and empowerment of these youth, moving beyond conventional conflict resolution approaches to foster long-term stability.

Dr. Yosuke Nagai is the Executive Director of Accept International and the Founder of the Global Taskforce for Youth Combatants. He has been dedicated to mainly implementing deradicalization, reintegration, and rehabilitation programs for defectors, prisoners, and detainees from non-state armed groups, particularly those involved in violent extremism, in regions such as Somalia, Yemen, Kenya, Indonesia, and Colombia. Currently, as a visiting fellow at the Strategy, Statecraft, and Technology: Changing Character of War Centre at the University of Oxford, Dr. Nagai is researching the impact of narratives that empower disengaged combatants as agents of peace.