Hostage survival : some preliminary observations / Brian Michael Jenkins

For approximately the past three years, The Rand Corporation, under the joint sponsorship of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of State, has been studying various aspects of international terrorism. A major focus of this research effort has been on situations in which U.S. officials abroad or foreign officials in the United States might be held hostage by terrorists. This paper--drawn from material reported earlier to ARPA and State--describes some preliminary observations on the experience of the hostages. It is based largely on interviews with former hostages, including both American and foreign officials, businessmen who have been kidnapped abroad, and several private American citizens who were kidnapped and held for ransom in the United States. The observations here are preliminary; they are being circulated in the form of a paper for the sake of timeliness. A more detailed Rand report is forthcoming. (Author)