State hostage-taking as coercive diplomacy

The detention of civilians by nation states in order to force concessions from their country of citizenship, commonly known as hostage diplomacy, presents a thorny and possibly intractable challenge to democratic governments which remain committed to preserving the international rules-based order. A form of triangular or indirect coercion, hostage diplomacy cases have increased in recent years in line with a weakening of both the ability and credibility of democratic states to advance coercive threats and assurances alike when faced with recalcitrant adversaries. This special issue integrates the perspectives of expert practitioners from the legal, policymaking, NGO and civil society sectors with more traditional academic scholarship on the issue of how to better understand, analyse and respond to state hostage-taking.