Man without a Gun

By Giandomenico Picco,

Book cover of Man without a Gun: One Diplomat's Secret Struggle to Free the Hostages, Fight Terrorism, and End a War

Book description

Can an unarmed man triumph in a land of terror and violence?

Man Without a Gun is the true story of a single UN diplomat's astonishing high-wire struggle for peace in the Middle East. UN secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar called the author "more of a soldier than a diplomat."…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Man without a Gun as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Picco’s book is a striking tale of his role as a UN diplomat in the 1980s and 1990s, where he worked tirelessly behind the scenes to negotiate and free numerous hostages held by Islamic terrorist groups in Lebanon. 

He describes his meetings with key Israeli, Syrian, American, and Iranian interlocutors in extremely risky, high-stakes hostage negotiations; he was thought to have been one of the few Westerners to have ever met the late Imad Mugnihyah, leader of Islamic Jihadand lived to tell the tale. 

Picco is a true hero, and the released Lebanon hostages owed their lives to…

From Kenneth's list on hostage negotiation.

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