Examining the Scariest Issue of Our Time in Mitchell Reiss’s 'Negotiating with Evil'

In a career spanning decades, Mitchell B. Reiss has been at the center of some of America’s most sensitive diplomatic negotiations. He is internationally recognized for his efforts to forge peace in Northern Ireland and to stem the nuclear crisis in North Korea. In Negotiating with Evil: When To Talk to Terrorists, Reiss distills his experience to answer two questions that are more vital today than ever: Should we talk to terrorists? And if we do, how should we conduct the negotiations in order to gain what we want?

Over the past three years, Reiss has traveled to some of the world’s hotbeds of terrorist activity, including Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Ireland, Spain, and Sri Lanka. He has interviewed hundreds of world leaders—ranging from General David Petraeus to Gerry Adams, from ETA and Hamas leaders to the Director General of MI5. Reiss offers the most experienced and trusted perspective on the most pressing issues of our time.

He writes, “The terrible truth is that there will be more terrorist groups in the future than in the past, they will have more places to gather and scheme, they will have access to far more lethal technologies, and they will direct their hatred at the United States above all. Unfortunately, there have been few guidelines to help the United States decide when it should engage, when it should fight, and when it should combine the two. Until now.”

Mitchell B. Reiss is a leading expert on American foreign policy. He is the twenty-seventh president of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.