The mental health deficit of the pandemic has created a mental health dividend – awareness, willingness to talk about how we are feeling, comfort in checking in on friends. As we emerge on Freedom Day, hostages have a lot to teach us about how to adjust.
I realized early on that foreign policy and national security were not things that happened to ‘other people’ – when a family member was kidnapped in Colombia these big and scary things became an every day part of my life.
State hostage taking by countries like Iran is on the rise. The UK has an opportunity to lead the way by raising the standard of support for hostages and their families, enhancing understanding of the problem, and bringing allies together to end this once and for all.
The former hostage has had the very foundation of their beliefs, assumptions and priorities upended. Working out who you are, what matters, and processing the regrets you’ve allowed to surface – that’s a piece of the reintegration puzzle we need to talk about more.
I recently came across this piece in the New York Times Magazine by Doug Bock Clark, whose work on Americans in trouble overseas I have come to respect and admire. He describes the plight of Americans held in Kuwait –… Read More ›
Bellingcat have been key players in solving puzzles related to some of the most important intelligence challenges of the last decade; chemical attacks in Syria, the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 over the Ukraine and the Salisbury poisonings, to name just a few.
Do they replace our intelligence agencies? No, of course not. Should they make those agencies think again about what’s possible and how to make the most of open source data? Absolutely.
Reflecting on the lessons I’ve learned from the former hostages I’ve gotten to known, here are six secrets of resilience to help get us all through a difficult winter ahead.
I rarely re-read a book, but when a dear friend returned my copy of A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, I just couldn’t resist. It’s perhaps my favorite novel of all time. Maybe. But definitely the only ‘hostage’ story… Read More ›
Throughout the Presidential campaign, you told us this the soul of the nation was on the ballot. As President, your most important job is to protect Americans. How you treat American hostages and their families will tell us a lot about your values as Commander in Chief.
I like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens as much as the next child of the 1980s, having spent every Christmas holiday re-watching Julie Andrews bring joy and music to the Austrian Alps. I never planned my viewing in… Read More ›
