ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the context and some of the available tools of influence available to support an engagement strategy and the considerations that should be in the minds of those who use them to manage transitional conflict environments. Engagement in transitional polities is fraught with strategic challenges. The diplomacy of engagement requires selecting a mixture of tools appropriate to the specific case. It requires leverage, and leverage comes from power, actual and potential, in one of its many forms. Calibrating relations with regimes and rebels or civilian-led opposition groups requires careful choices on issues such as public distancing and pressures, channels and levels for engaging oppositionists, and what forms of tangible support to withdraw or provide. Engagement in transitional polities is not without risks. Decision-makers who seek to help manage such conflicts can expect to face criticism for seeking to arrange soft landings and power-sharing compromises.
