Hostage Diplomacy: who's in control?

Sydney Ideas

2022 Michael Hintze Lecture with Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert British-Australian academic, Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, highlights the complex nature of state hostage taking, and outlines ways in which Australia’s approach can be refined to tackle this insidious and growing global problem. The use of individual citizens of a country as tools of diplomatic leverage in disputes between states is often referred to as Hostage Diplomacy, a form of arbitrary detention that involves the imprisonment and/or conviction of innocent foreign or dual-national visitors as a means of extracting concessions from their country of citizenship. In 2018, Kylie Moore-Gilbert was falsely charged with espionage and imprisoned in Iran for more than two years before being released in a prisoner exchange deal negotiated by the Australian government. As a victim of hostage diplomacy, Moore-Gilbert experienced first-hand the injustice of being reduced to little more than a political bargaining chip. Hear her unique insights into the Australian government’s approach to arbitrary detention and her current involvement in lobbying to reform both Australia’s strategic response and the provision of support services to victims and their families. After the talk, Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert is joined in conversation by Professor Sarah Phillips. This Sydney Ideas event was held on Thursday 29 September 2022 in the Social Sciences Building SSB Lecture Theatre 200, in partnership with the Centre for International Security Studies. To view the video of the event in full, please go to the Sydney Ideas website: https://www.sydney.edu.au/engage/events-sponsorships/sydney-ideas/2022/kylie-gilbert-moore-hostage-diplomacy-and-government-reform.html