ABSTRACT
Those in negotiation of any type, from business deals to hostage crises, agree that an understanding of the other side's motivations, intentions, and objectives helps the negotiator. I. W. Zartman urged negotiators with terrorists to "discover their paramount preferred goals". New terrorists are more likely to take hostages without any demands, where the purpose of taking hostages is to lengthen the spectacle before killing, or to use the hostages as a means to another end. Ransom is rarely demanded by either old or new terrorist hostage-takers. Wherever an official side estimates that the terrorist is trying to detain victims in an undiscoverable location, it should assume that the intent is to seek ransom rather than publicity. The low-end estimate of hostage deaths counts only deaths that occurred during hostage-takings that were not classified as terrorist "armed assaults," because this terrorist attack type is most likely to kill people other than hostages.
