Hostages to Fortunes: Britain, The Gulf Monarchies and the Incarceration of UK Nationals

Hostage-taking has become a distressing feature of international politics over the last two decades, associated either with terrorist groups or hostile state actors, such as Iran, willing to engage in hostage diplomacy for political and security advantage. By contrast, the incarceration of foreign nationals by friendly powers has received scant attention. This is the hidden dimension of hostage diplomacy. By examining the case of British nationals held in prisons across the Gulf monarchies, but with a particular focus on Saudi Arabia, we argue that such prisoners were, in effect, hostages themselves, subject to the pursuit of national interests (commercial, economic and strategic) that denied their human rights and wider political agency. They became in effect, hostages to fortunes.