Examining the Rise of Hostage Taking and the Role of the US Government

This week on Babel, Jon Alterman welcomes Jason Rezaian back to the podcast. Jason is a former hostage and alongside Jon, he is the co-executive director of the CSIS Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention. They speak about the growing phenomenon of hostile governments and groups imprisoning Americans to gain leverage against the United States, why it’s becoming more common, and what the United States can do both to respond when an American is detained and to deter wrongful detention and hostage taking altogether. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Natasha Hall and Danny Sharp, speaking about the case of Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton graduate student who was kidnapped in Iraq in March by groups close to the Iranian government. 

• Jason Rezaian, “Now the real work to end hostage-taking and wrongful detentions begins,” Washington Post Global Opinions, August 30, 2022. 
• Jason Rezaian and Danny Sharp, “Just Call Them Hostages,” CSIS, July 20, 2023. 
• Transcript, “Jason Rezaian: The Rise of Hostage Taking,” CSIS, July 25, 2023.