Customer Reviews

Negotiating Hostage Crises with the New Terrorists (Praeger Security International)

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Negotiation still has a place in crisis negotiation with what the authors call 'new terrorists'.

The new terrorists have read our manuals, and learn from previous incidents. But they still have 'rational' goals. While they are 'ready to die' that does not mean it is their preferred option.

Negotiation is not about making deals with hostage takers. It is about influencing their behavior. The negotiator has three tasks:

Keep the situation calm;
Gather intelligence;
Buy time. (For security forces to gather personnel and equipment for a tactical rescue or preferably for the situation to be resolved peacefully. Either the terrorists walk out or the tactical intervention force goes in. In the end the choice is up to the terrorist.

This book won't impress chickenhawks who watch a lot of Rambo movies. This book should be read by negotiators, tactical teams and more importantly police and government managers who may think looking tough is more important than being effective.

The research on the Beslan tragedy does bring into question a lot of the material provided by Russian sources in John Gidducks useful book Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools While that book remains useful it appears the rape and drug use stories about the hostage takers may have been fabricated by the Putin government.

I will be re-reading that book critically soon.

book ever...very useful and good case study...hard to read but very very good and informative!!!