Call for Papers
NCMR Special Issue on Extortionate Negotiations
Guest Editor: William A. Donohue, Professor
Department of Communication, Michigan State University
Extortionate negotiations occur when innocent captives are used to extort some outcome from a
specific target. The most common extortionate interactions take the form of hostage
negotiations, kidnappings, or piracy. They are unique negotiations for two reasons. First,
neither party can walk away until the threat to harm has been eliminated. In more conventional
negotiations, e.g., business deals, parties can choose to simply walk away and pursue some other
deal or nothing at all. That option does not exist when human lives are in the balance. Second,
these negotiations typically play out in the center of some kind of personal or political crisis that
is often very public. The taking of hostages usually creates a media circus which generally adds
a confounding layer of complexity to these negotiations. In a word, these extortionate
negotiations are often a mess.
The messiness of these extortionate transactions provides an exciting opportunity to learn more
about negotiation theory and research. For example, although there is some research on the
impact of external media events on secret negotiations, these interactions are not well
documented. Related to the negotiations themselves, often times the people holding hostages
will have them negotiate with the targets as a means of making it more difficult for the targets to
say no to the hostage takers’ demands. What does this dynamic do to the power structure in a
negotiation? There are also many different kinds of extortionate transactions many of which are
inter-culturally bound. What can these interactions tell us about the role of culture in
negotiation?
There are many scholars working in the area of extortionate transactions in some form. I would
like to invite these individuals to provide theory papers, empirical studies, or qualitative
explorations of specific incidents that help us better understand how to deal with these challenges
in the context of a global economy that is expanding rapidly. If you are interested in submitting
a paper, I am happy to review ideas with you, explore opportunities, and even provide transcripts
if you need them. But, please do not hesitate to email me at Donohue@msu.edu with your ideas
and we can craft something revealing about this important communication context.
The deadline for submission will be December 1, 2013.
Authors should submit their papers to Manuscript Central for the journal at
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ncmr and you will be prompted to note that it is for a special
issue. We look forward to receiving your submissions.