When States Take Hostages: Responding to Iran and other Perpetrators

Join us on Thursday, October 24th for a program investigating the legal and policy challenges associated with the rise of state hostage taking.

Stanford University is teaming up with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to tackle an evolving foreign policy problem: state hostage taking. Taking hostages is not a new behavior. For more than 70 years, violent kidnapping and holding civilians for ransom has been a paradigmatic tactic of non-state actors like Al Qaeda. But the problem is rapidly changing. In the place of terrorist groups, states—particularly adversary states like Iran, Russia, China, Syria, and Venezuela—are now responsible for 90 percent of new American hostage taking cases. The problem is also getting worse. The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation estimates a 175 percent increase in the number of Americans taken hostage by foreign governments over the past decade. Increasingly, hostage taking is emerging as an asymmetric tactic of interstate conflict. But existing structures of international law make it hard for democratic countries to deter the practice. And the fundamental vicious cycle endures: Engaging with adversaries and making deals to bring citizens home incentivizes further hostage taking.

Co-hosted by Stanford Law School, Stanford’s Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

AGENDA

View the full agenda

9:00 am – 10:15 am
State Perspectives on Iranian Hostage Taking

Iran has long viewed hostage taking as a tool of statecraft and source of revenue. Former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaee, now vice president for economic affairs, admitted as much in a 2021 interview. He suggested that Iran could address its economic needs by simply taking 1,000 American troops hostage, then demanding $1 billion dollars each for their release.

The urgency of bringing hostages home is clear to Western states. But U.S. and European officials face difficult choices. Making payments to adversary states—even simply returning blocked assets they own—incentivizes additional hostage taking. Also, there is a risk that funds transferred to state adversaries will be used to support malign activities. For example, the U.S. State Department insists that the $6 billion made available to Iran in a September 2023 prisoner swap cannot be used to fund terrorist activities. But former Iranian president Ibrahim Raisi told NBC in an interview that Iran would use the unfrozen funds “wherever we need it.”

Our first panel will examine the policy consequences of states’ perspectives on hostage taking. Panelists will compare U.S., European, and Iranian views to analyze their competing interests and approaches. The panel will also explore how legal innovations could change political and policy calculations.

• Tara Denham
• Dani Gilbert
• Abbas Milani
• Abram Paley
• Moderator: Jon Alterman

10:30 am – 11:45 am
Hostage Taking and International Law: New Thinking

Our second panel will examine the international law dimensions of hostage taking and discuss challenges to holding states legally accountable. The discussion will explore novel strategies to overcome the accountability gap, including through litigation in U.S. federal courts (and potentially the domestic courts of other states) and through international institutions. Both offer a unique set of advantages, drawbacks, and challenges, and each are rapidly changing as legal scholars and practitioners push the boundaries. Legal innovation may provide new opportunities to establish meaningful deterrence against Iran and other would-be state hostage takers, with substantial implications for foreign policy dynamics.

• David Bowker
• John Bellinger III
• Chimène Keitner
• Moderator: Daniel Sharp

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Held Hostage in Iran: A Keynote Fireside Chat with Jason Rezaian & Allen Weiner

Jason Rezaian, a Bay Area native, who was the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tehran when the Iranian regime took him as a hostage. The Islamic Republic held Jason in its notorious Evin Prison for 544 days where his captors subjected him to physical and psychological torture. Iran claimed Jason was a spy.

In the six years since he returned to the United States, Mr. Rezaian has turned his suffering into advocacy. With Dr. Jon Alterman, he co-leads the CSIS Commission on Hostage-Taking and Wrongful Detention, a bipartisan initiative in Washington, DC, that seeks innovative solutions to the crisis. Through CSIS and in his role as a Washington Post Global Opinions columnist, Mr. Rezaian works to confront the challenge of state-sponsored terrorism.

Mr. Rezaian and Stanford Law School’s Allen Weiner will take part in a discussion regarding Mr. Rezaian’s experience as a hostage, his assessment of the hostage-taking crisis, and possible policy options to counter it.

• Jason Rezaian
• Moderator: Allen Weiner

SPEAKERS

Jon Alterman

Jon B. Alterman is a senior vice president, holds the Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, and is director of the Middle East Program at CSIS. Prior to joining CSIS in 2002, he served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and from 2009-2019 he served as a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. In addition to his policy work, he often teaches Middle Eastern studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the George Washington University. Earlier in his career, Alterman was a scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace and at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a legislative aide to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY) responsible for foreign policy and defense. From 1993 to 1997, Alterman was an award-winning teacher at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in history. Alterman has lectured in more than 35 countries on five continents on subjects related to the Middle East and U.S. policy toward the region. He is the author or coauthor of four books on the Middle East and the editor of five more. His opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and other major publications. He is a former international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is now a life member. He received his A.B. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

John Bellinger III

John B. Bellinger III is a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, DC, where he serves as co-chair of the firm’s Global Law and Public Policy group. There, he advises sovereign governments and companies on a variety of international law and U.S. national security law issues. John is also an adjunct senior fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations. A globally recognized expert on international law, John joined the firm in 2009, after serving as the Senate-confirmed legal adviser for the Department of State and senior associate counsel to the president and legal adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House in the Bush administration. Before his confirmation as legal adviser, he managed Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s Senate confirmation and codirected her State Department transition team. He previously served as counsel for national security matters in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, as special counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as a special assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence, William H. Webster. Bellinger received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, his M.A. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, and his A.B. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

David Bowker

David W. Bowker is chair of the International Litigation Practice at WilmerHale. There, he has spent nearly 20 years working on litigation and arbitration matters on behalf of U.S. and foreign companies, foreign states, individuals, and others before international arbitration tribunals and U.S. state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a vice president of the American Society of International Law, an outside director of the non-profit organization Hostage US, an adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley School of Law, and a member of the American Bar Association, International Bar Association, and American Law Institute. Along with Georgetown Law Professor David Stewart, he recently co-authored Ristau’s International Judicial Assistance: A Practitioner’s Guide to International Civil and Commercial Litigation, published by Oxford University Press and the International Law Institute in 2021. Before joining WilmerHale, Mr. Bowker served as the attorney-adviser for the Law of Armed Conflict in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to that, he worked on counterterrorism in the Office of Global Affairs and Multilateral Issues on the National Security Council staff. He received his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, his M.A.L.D. from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, and his B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Tara Denham

Tara Denham is the Assistant Deputy Minister of Emergency Management, Legal and Consular Affairs (CFM) & Senior Official for Hostage Affairs. The branch contributes to timely, whole-of-government coordinated responses to international emergencies; provides leadership on consular policy, assistance to Canadians abroad and travel advice; and oversees the department’s security and readiness. The branch also includes the international law bureau, which provides strategic advice on a wide range of international legal issues. Previously, Tara was the was the Director General for Human Rights, Freedoms and Inclusion at Global Affairs Canada and the Senior Official on cyber, digital, and emerging technology policy issues, which led Canada’s foreign policy engagement on inclusion, democracy and human rights, and its digital and cybersecurity dimensions. Tara took on the role of Women’s Champion in October 2023 and is honored to continue to advocate and support the amazing efforts of the Women’s Network in the department.

Previously, Tara worked in both policy and programming areas within Global Affairs Canada, including as Director General of the Ukraine Strategic Action Team; Head of Evaluation; and Director of the Centre for International Digital Policy where she spearheaded the creation of the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism during Canada’s Presidency in 2018. She has also managed programming teams, including the portfolios of the Middle East, Afghanistan, democracy and human rights, and peace support operations. She has been deployed to Afghanistan as the Chief of Staff to the Representative of Canada to Kandahar (2009-2010).

Tara has worked in Global Affairs Canada for 20 years, and previously worked in the non-governmental sector. Ms. Denham has a Master’s degree from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, with a focus on conflict studies.

Dani Gilbert

Dani Gilbert is an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University. Her research explores the causes and consequences of hostage taking in international security including projects on rebel kidnapping, hostage recovery policy, and hostage diplomacy. In 2023, Dr. Gilbert was selected to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Before joining the faculty at Northwestern, she was the Edelson Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, an assistant professor of military & strategic studies at the United States Air Force Academy, and a Minerva-Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace. From 2009 to 2013, Dr. Gilbert served on Capitol Hill as a senior legislative assistant and appropriations associate. Her current book project examines why and how armed groups kidnap during civil war, which received the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Merze Tate Award for the Best Dissertation in International Relations, Law, and Politics. She received her Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University; M.A. from the George Washington University and the London School of Economics; and B.A. in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University.

Chimène Keitner

Professor Chimène Keitner is the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California Davis School of Law. She is a leading authority on international law and civil litigation and served as the 27th counselor on international law in the U.S. Department of State. Chimène has authored two books and dozens of articles, essays, and book chapters on questions surrounding the relationships among law, communities, and borders. Her work has focused on a range of issues including jurisdiction, extraterritoriality, foreign sovereign and foreign official immunity, and the historical understandings underpinning current practice in these areas. Among other professional service, Chimène has served on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) and as co-chair of the ASIL International Law in Domestic Courts Interest Group. She is a member of the American Law Institute and an adviser on the ALI’s Fourth Restatement of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. She is also a founding co-chair of the International Law Association’s Study Group on Individual Responsibility in International Law. Professor Keitner received a J.D. from Yale Law School, both a D.Phil. and M.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University, and an A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard University.

Abbas Milani

Abbas Milani is the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a professor (by courtesy) in the Stanford Global Studies Division. He is also one of the founding co-directors of the Iran Democracy Project and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. His expertise includes U.S.-Iran relations as well as Iranian cultural, political, and security issues. He taught at Tehran University’s Faculty of Law and Political Science until 1986, where he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the university’s Center for International Relations. After moving to the United States, he was the chair of the Political Science Department at the Notre Dame de Namur University for 14 years. He was a visiting research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Middle East Center for eight years. He has published more than twenty books and two hundred articles and book reviews in scholarly magazines, journals, and newspapers. His most recent books include A Window into Modern Iran: The Ardeshir Zahedi Papers at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawai’i and his B.A. in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Abram Paley

Abram Paley is the deputy special envoy for Iran since March 2023. Prior to that, he was Middle East advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris. A career member of the Foreign Service, Abram has served at the U.S. embassies in China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Israel and in Washington in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Abram served as director for Yemen at the National Security Council from February 2014 to February 2015. He has a B.A. from New York University and an M.A. from Texas A&M University.

Jason Rezaian

Jason Rezaian writes for the Washington Post’s Global Opinions section. Previously he was the Post’s Tehran bureau chief from 2012 to 2016. In July 2014, he was arrested by Iranian authorities and imprisoned for 544 days until his release in January 2016. Before joining the Washington Post he wrote for many U.S.-based and international publications including TIME, Foreign Policy, the San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, GlobalPost, and Monocle. Rezaian’s memoir, Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison, was published in January 2019 by Anthony Bourdain Books, an imprint of Ecco Books. In collaboration with Crooked Media, Gimlet Media, and A24, he adapted it as a nine-episode narrative audio series, which is available as a Spotify original podcast. Since 2018 Rezaian has been a CNN Global Affairs contributor. Among his other television credits are appearances on Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Face the Nation, CBS Morning News, Amanpour, Reliable Sources, United Shades of America, and PBS NewsHour. Rezaian is the winner of several journalism awards. He was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University, class of 2017, and a Terker distinguished fellow at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. Rezaian received his B.A. from the New School.

Daniel Sharp

Daniel Sharp is a second-year J.D. candidate at Stanford Law School and an adjunct fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He conducts research at the nexus of international law and international relations on hostage diplomacy, for which he was made a Defense Innovation Scholar with the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation in spring of 2024. Danny served as a law clerk to Justice Règis Rukundakuvuga, President of Rwanda’s Court of Appeal, during his 1L summer. Before law school, Danny was an Associate Director and Associate Fellow with the Middle East Program. Danny worked for a macroeconomic development advisory firm in Jordan prior to joining CSIS. He holds a B.A. in Near Eastern studies from Cornell University.

Allen Weiner

Allen S. Weiner is an international legal scholar whose research and teaching focus on international security and conflict resolution. In the international security realm, his work spans such issues as international law and the response to contemporary security threats, the relationship between international and domestic law in the context of armed conflict, the law of war (international humanitarian law), just war theory, and international criminal law (including transitional justice). In the realm of international conflict resolution, his multidisciplinary work analyzes the barriers to resolving intractable political conflicts, with a particular focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His work on misinformation and disinformation includes a focus on the potential harmful uses of social media in conflict settings, including war zones. Weiner’s scholarship is informed by deep experience; he practiced international law in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser for more than a decade, advising government policymakers, negotiating international agreements, and representing the United States in litigation before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Court of Justice, and the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his B.A. from Harvard University.