New!! NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS!! Click covers for more information!! GETTING IT DONE...with negotiation. New book. Click covers for more information.                                                                                                                                                           

"Negotiating with Terrorists" is the theme of International Negotiation journal (vol. 8, no. 3,2003), which Bill Zartman guest edits.

Negotiating with terrorists is possible, within limits, as the articles in this issue 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 issue of the journal explores and elucidates.

The issue includes several theoretical articles and up-to-the-minute case studies that I believe are important international and multidisciplinary contributions to the literature and can be useful as required texts for your
terrorism or negotiation courses:

Send mail to negotiation@negotiations.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: April 07, 2007