Negotiating the Non-Negotiable: Dealing with Absolutist Terrorists

Abstract

AbstractTerrorism has taken on a new form in which loss of life is par for the course and where terrorist demands are often impossible to meet. To combat these new absolutist terrorists, the US government has developed innovative approaches to defend national security, including negotiating with state sponsors of terrorism with the threat of force for noncompliance, isolating the violent actors by offering financial rewards for assistance in combating terror, and offering and employing international intelligence assistance. Each of these approaches, whether it results in a reward or punishment, involves some form of negotiation with the terrorists or those who support them to gain the information necessary to disrupt terrorist networks and convict those responsible.