Aikins: Should a state ever consider negotiating with terrorist organizations? And if so, under what circumstances?

By: /
5 June, 2014

The Afghan Taliban, with whom negotiations were conducted, is not listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, UK, or European Union. It may be a violent, fundamentalist Islamist insurgency, but to characterize it as a classic terrorist group mischaracterizes its history and aims. The Bergdahl trade should instead be considered under the long tradition of negotiated prisoner-of-war exchanges during wartime.

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