In the last four decades, hostage situations have rapidly increased in the world due to the threat of terrorism and other social problems. The goals of hostage takers are to achieve certain political, criminal, or social benefits through hostage situations. Hostage incidents are common types of situations that police are forced to confront in the societies. Police apply either negotiation or tactical team intervention in hostage situations to recover hostages. In the past, the police most commonly used the tactical operations to end situations often resulting in the loss of lives of hostages, but in the last few decades there has been a change in favor of negotiation. The real success in this endeavor is based on effective communication strategies. The purposes of this study are to analyze the historical background of hostage situations, to identify effective negotiation strategies in a case study approach, and to provide some future recommendations for governments, police agencies, and researchers for peaceful resolutions in hostage situations.