Stanford University is teaming up with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to tackle an evolving foreign policy problem: state hostage taking. Taking hostages is not a new behavior. For more than 70 years, violent kidnapping and holding civilians for ransom has been a paradigmatic tactic of non-state actors like Al Qaeda. But the problem is rapidly changing. In the place of terrorist groups, states—particularly adversary states like Iran, Russia, China, Syria, and Venezuela—are now responsible for 90 percent of new American hostage taking cases. The problem is also getting worse. The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation estimates a 175 percent increase in the number of Americans taken hostage by foreign governments over the past decade. Increasingly, hostage taking is emerging as an asymmetric tactic of interstate conflict. But existing structures of international law make it hard for democratic countries to deter the practice. And the fundamental vicious cycle endures: Engaging with adversaries and making deals to bring citizens home incentivizes further hostage taking.
Join us on Thursday, October 24th for a program investigating the legal and policy challenges associated with the rise of state hostage taking.