Hostages, Ransoms and U.S. Policy

In July 2024, the Biden administration announced it secured the release of three American citizens from Russia. The three returned to the United States as part of 24-person prisoner swap involving the U.S., Russia, Germany and three other Western countries. On October 7, 2023, as part of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, 251 people from Israel were abducted and taken hostage in Gaza. As of July 2024, 116 hostages had been returned alive to Israel, most of them released in a prisoner exchange deal. There are still well over 100 known hostages in Gaza, dead or alive. While the U.S. government has held fast to the principle of refusing to allow the payment of ransoms in cash or in kind, European countries have turned a blind eye toward ransom payments by the families of abductees or by their employers.

This seminar explores America’s problems with hostage taking and demands for ransom, which date back to 1785. We will discuss why it is invariably diplomacy, not force, that eventually resolves a major hostage crises. 

George Kassis was born and raised in Syria before moving to Lebanon to attend the American University of Beirut and embark on a career with the United Nations where he met his American wife, Jill. They had parallel professional careers, which took them on tours of duty to Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen before being transferred by the U.N. to New York. Upon his retirement in 2009, George and Jill moved to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where they continue to enjoy the pleasures of the OceanState.