Government negotiation with terrorists

No negotiation with terrorists refers a policy followed by mostly Western countries to not negotiate with terrorists; this policy is often applied during hostage crises. Often the policy is limited to not paying ransom demands, and doesn't apply to other forms of negotiation. This policy is intended to remove the incentive for taking hostages, for as long as a country applies this policy on a no-exceptions basis, terrorists can anticipate that there will be no reward for trading hostages.

On June 18, 2013, G8 leaders signed an agreement against paying ransoms to terrorists.

The United States has a policy of no negotiation with terrorists for hostages.

There have been heavily criticized incidents in which US government leaders were found to have negotiated with terrorists, with the most notable being Obama's negotiation with the Taliban Five.

Israel generally does not negotiate with terrorists.

In January 2015, hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto were beheaded by ISIL after Japan refused to meet ISIL's demand of $200 million for the release of the hostages.

An investigation by The New York Times found that Al-Qaeda and its affiliates have taken in at least $125 million in revenue from kidnappings since 2008. These payments were made almost exclusively by European governments, which funneled the money through a network of proxies, sometimes masking it as development aid.

There is an issue caused by the fact that some Western countries such as the United States, Canada, Israel, and Britain tend to not negotiate/pay ransom to terrorists, whereas other Western countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland are more open to negotiation and ransom payment. This creates tension between governments with opposing policies. Another area of criticism is that, even though not negotiating with terrorists is the announced policy of a country, at times a country does negotiate with terrorists; whether a country does or does not negotiate with terrorists often depends on which political party rules the country.

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Wikipedia