Hostage Diplomacy
Suppressing Dissent
Hostage diplomacy is the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals and dual citizens by authoritarian states to extract diplomatic concessions, deter policy actions, and suppress dissent by exploiting democratic governments’ obligation to protect their citizens.
Hostage diplomacy is the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals and dual citizens by authoritarian states to extract diplomatic concessions, deter policy actions, and suppress dissent by exploiting democratic governments’ obligation to protect their citizens.
FIMI Taxonomy by Information Epidemiology Lab.
Citation
BibTeX citation:
@article{li2026,
author = {Li, E. Rosalie},
title = {Hostage {Diplomacy}},
date = {2026-02-17},
url = {https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/hostage-diplomacy.html},
langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Li, E. Rosalie. 2026. “Hostage Diplomacy,” February. https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/hostage-diplomacy.html.