The Los Angeles Times quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on the threat of terrorism to the West:
“To date, they have not shown themselves to be a direct threat to Western countries. But I wouldn’t rule it out in future,” J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, said of Boko Haram. “It has evolved very quickly. That they haven’t attacked foreign targets doesn’t mean they don’t have that ambition or couldn’t evolve a strategy.”
[…]
Pham said Islamic State’s absolutist ideology and ambition to be a global Islamic empire has left little realistic opportunity to negotiate with the group — or its affiliates.
“With that type of ideological absolutism where they’re aspiring to be a universal empire of religion, there’s no compromise possible,” said Pham. “And Boko Haram is evolving the same ideology. Perhaps earlier in its history, when [Boko Haram] was primarily a local concern and its ideology was not as rigid in its adherence to absolutism, perhaps there might have been a possibility of compromise. But that moment has gone by.”