Negotiating With Terrorists

This edited volume addresses the important issue of negotiating with terrorists, and offers recommendations for best practice and processes. Hostage negotiation is the process of trying to align two often completely polarised parties. Authorities view hostage taking as unacceptable demands made by unacceptable means. However terrorists view their actions as completely justified, even on moral and religious grounds. If they are to try and reconcile these two sides, it is essential for hostage negotiators to understand terrorist culture, the hostage takers’ profiles, their personality, their view of the world and also the authorities, their values and their framing of the problem raised by the taking of hostages. Although not advocating negotiating with terrorists, the volume seeks to analyse when, why, and how it is done. Part I deals with the theory and quantifiable data produced from analysis of hostage situations, while Part II explores several high profile case studies and the lessons that can be learnt from them. This volume will be of great interest to students of terrorism studies, conflict management, negotiation, security studies and IR in general. I William Zartman is the Jacob Blaustein Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Organization and Conflict Resolution and former Director of the Conflict Management and African Studies Programs, at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Program at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. He is author/editor of over 20 books on negotiation, conflict and mediation. Guy Olivier Faure is Professor of Sociology at the Sorbonne University, Paris I, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Program at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. He has served as an advisor to French government on hostage negotiations.

International Negotiation Series, 1 (International Studies Library, 1) Negotiating with terrorists is possible, within limits, as the chapters in this book show and explore. Limits come initially in the distinction between absolute and contingent terrorists, and then between revolutionary and conditional absolutes and between barricaders, kidnappers and hijackers in the contingent category. Revolutionary absolutes are nonnegotiable adversaries, but even conditional absolutes are potentially negotiable and contingent terrorists actually seek negotiation. The official negotiator is faced with the task of giving a little in order to get the terrorist to give a lot, a particularly difficult imbalance to obtain given the highly committed and desperate nature of terrorists as they follow rational but highly unconventional tactics. Such are the challenges of negotiating with terrorists that this first volume of the "International Negotiation Series" explores and elucidates. (Previously published in International Negotiation, Volume 8:3) Table of Contents List of Contributors Introduction - I. William Zartman 1.Chapter 1: Negotiating the Non-Negotiable: Dealing with Absolutist Terrorists - Richard E. Hayes, Stacey R. Kaminski and Steven M. Beres 2.Chapter 2: Negotiating with Terrorists: The Hostage Case - Guy Olivier Faure 3.Chapter 3: Contrasting Dynamics of Crisis Negotiations: Barricade versus Kidnapping Incidents - Adam Dolnik 4.Chapter 4: Testing the Role Effect in Terrorist Negotiations - William A. Donohue and Paul J. Taylor 5.Chapter 5: Negotiating under the Cross: The Story of the Forty Day Siege of the Church of Nativity - Moty Cristal 6.Chapter 6: The Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis: The Perpetrators, their Tactics, and the Russian Response - Adam Dolnik and Richard Pilch 7.Chapter 7: Negotiating with Villains Revisited: Research Note - Bertram I. Spector Index About the Editor I. William Zartman is Professor Emeritus at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University. The Jacob Blaustein Professor of International Organizations and Conflict Resolution, he is the former director of the SAIS Conflict Management Program and former director of the SAIS African Studies Program. He has authored seven books, edited 15 others, and is co-author and editor of the SAIS African Studies Library, which numbers 18 books so far. The past president of both the Middle East Studies Association and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, Dr. Zartman has been a Distinguished Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Halévy Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Universities of Paris, and Olin Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. He currently carries the distinction of Professor Emeritus at SAIS

DIV DIVIn a career spanning decades, Mitchell B. Reiss has been at the center of some of America’s most sensitive diplomatic negotiations. He is internationally recognized for his negotiation efforts to forge peace in Northern Ireland and to stem the nuclear crisis in North Korea. In Negotiating with Evil, Reiss distills his experience to answer two questions more vital today than ever: Should we talk to terrorists? And if we do, how should we conduct the negotiations in order to gain what we want?/divDIV /divDIVTo research this book, Reiss traveled the globe for three years, unearthing hidden aspects of the most secret and sensitive negotiations from recent history. He has interviewed hundreds of individuals, including prime ministers, generals, intelligence operatives, and former terrorists in conflict-torn regions of Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. The result is a fascinating examination of the different methods countries have employed to confront terrorist movements, the mistakes made, the victories achieved, and the lessons learned./divDIV /divDIVNegotiating with Evil is a penetrating and insightful look into high-stakes diplomacy in the post-9/11 world and a vital contribution to the global security debate as the United States and its allies struggle to confront terrorist threats abroad and at home./div/div

This book is about the role of negotiation in resolving terrorist barricade hostage crises. What lessons can be learned from past deadly incidents so that crisis negotiators and decision makers can act with greater effectiveness in the future? What are the lessons the terrorists are learning and how will they affect the dynamics of future incidents? What can we learn about the terrorist threat, and about preventing the escalation of future terrorist hostage-taking situations? While there are many trained crisis negotiators around the world, almost none of them has ever had contact with a terrorist hostage-taking incident. Further, the entire training program of most hostage negotiators focuses on resolving crises that do not take into consideration issues such as ideology, religion, or the differing sets of strategic objectives and mindsets of ideological hostage takers. This is especially true with regard to the terrorists of the new breed, who have become less discriminate, more lethal, and more willing to execute hostages and die during the incident. Further, many of the paradigms and presumptions upon which the contemporary practice of crisis negotiation is based do not reflect the reality of the new terrorists. The main focus of this book is on the detailed reconstruction and analysis of the two most high-profile cases in recent years, the Moscow theater and the Beslan school hostage crises, with a clear purpose of drawing lessons for hostage negotiation strategies in the future. This is an issue of top priority. Terrorist manuals from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq reveal that terrorist organizations are very closely observing and analyzing the lessons learned from these two incidents, suggesting that we are likely to see this type of new terrorist hostage taking involving large numbers of suicide fighters and executions of hostages at some point in the future. This raises a wide array of questions about appropriate responses and negotiation strategies. From the first glance, it is clear that we are not prepared.

Across the world governments proclaim that they will never ‘negotiate with evil’. And yet they always have and always will. From jungle clearings to stately homes and anonymous airport hotels, Talking to Terrorists puts us in the room with the terrorists, secret agents and go-betweens who seek to change the course of history. Jonathan Powell has spent nearly two decades mediating between governments and terrorist organisations. Drawing on conflicts from Colombia and Sri Lanka to Palestine and South Africa, this optimistic, wide-ranging, authoritative book is about how and why we should talk to terrorists. ‘Essential reading’ Independent ‘Fascinating’ Sunday Times Now includes a new Afterword - Talking to ISIL *Perfect for fans of The Looming Tower*

Engaging Extremists concerns negotiation with political terrorist organizations, separating terrorist groups that can be engaged from those that, for the moment, cannot.

"A wise and thorough investigation." - Lawrence Wright, author ofThe Looming Tower andThe Terror Years Starting in late 2012, Westerners working in Syria -- journalists and aid workers -- began disappearing without a trace. A year later the world learned they had been taken hostage by the Islamic State. Throughout 2014, all the Europeans came home, first the Spanish, then the French, then an Italian, a German, and a Dane. In August 2014, the Islamic State began executing the Americans -- including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, followed by the British hostages. Joel Simon, who in nearly two decades at the Committee to Protect Journalists has worked on dozens of hostages cases, delves into the heated hostage policy debate. The Europeans paid millions of dollars to a terrorist group to free their hostages. The US and the UK refused to do so, arguing that any ransom would be used to fuel terrorism and would make the crime more attractive, increasing the risk to their citizens.We Want to Negotiate is an exploration of the ethical, legal, and strategic considerations of a bedeviling question: Should governments pay ransom to terrorists?

Including many older documents not available electronically or otherwise accessible, this three-volume set provides the first comprehensive collection of key documents, statements, and testimony on U.S. government counterterrorism policies as they have evolved in the face of the changing terrorist threats. Selected executive and congressional materials highlight the government's diverse policy and program responses to terrorism. The testimony, statements, and documents provide the public articulation and face to the largely important intelligence, law enforcement, preventative security measures, and international cooperation used in the shadowy war against terrorism. Recent entries provide a handy compilation of important post-9/11 materials. For example, useful background information on U.S. actions against Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein and terrorism fundraising. Also included are statements from the Reagan and other administrations that relate to disputes over the appropriate use of force. Introductory chapters by Alexander and Kraft provide the historical context and analysis of previous and current U.S. counterterrorism policy including U.S. legislation. For over two centuries, America has faced occasional outbreaks of terrorism, perpetrated by both indigenous and foreign groups. But the spectacular bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the September 11, 2001, attacks seemed to signify a new age, frightening many Americans and destroying their sense of domestic security. In addition, U.S. citizens and interests have been increasingly affected by acts of terrorism abroad. The challenges of terrorism, therefore, have required the United States to develop comprehensive strategies and programs to counter both conventional and unconventional threats, nationally and globally.