In Virgil Perryman's 35 years as a global project engineer, he has avoided a hotel bombing in Sudan, evaded an extortionist warlord in Mozambique, and fled a Tanzanian village that tried to detain him after a business disagreement.

But it took all of his resources to weather a false arrest during a 1981 power struggle in Papua New Guinea, where he was managing an energy development company. Perryman had paid locals above-market wages and encouraged them to open businesses, which he even helped to finance. All this contributed to civil unrest and bureaucratic retribution.

"I got thrown in jail—actually, it was more like a dungeon—for two weeks," Perryman says. "The group of expats and government officials who tried to take over falsely accused me of embezzling money from the energy company."

The U.S. State Department would not get involved, Perryman says, because the arrest had nothing to do with his citizenship. In the end, he had to rely on connections and his knowledge of the local language. Perryman cultivated sympathy among the prison guards by intimating that he was more on their side than the rich folks running the government. "I told them I put 7,000 local people to work and that my goal was to make their country a better place," he says. When legitimate elected officials pressured the warden to release Perryman, the warden did.

"It taught me a lesson: Don't get involved or emotional, even if your motives are altruistic," says Perryman, now president of EcoPlasma Alianza, a green technology company in San Jose, Costa Rica. "Don't go changing the rules in someone else's game. Changing the status quo is at your own peril."

Doing business internationally sometimes means putting yourself at risk for an illegal detention or a terrorist attack, corporate kidnapping, disease outbreak, or natural disaster. There have been roughly 20,000 kidnappings for financial gain worldwide since 2001, estimates Randy Spivey, executive director of the Safe Travel Institute, in Spokane, Washington, which runs travel safety classes. In many countries, kidnapping is a profitable business that is carried out with police assistance, and foreign employees of multinational corporations are regarded as conduits to their firms' coffers.

"The world has always been a dangerous place," says Greg Bangs, vice president for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and worldwide product manager for Crime, Kidnap Ransom & Extortion, and Workplace Violence Insurance, in Warren, New Jersey. "The problem is that, in the hunt for more business, people nowadays are traveling to areas they didn't go to in the past."

Taking precautions—such as purchasing kidnap and ransom insurance, hiring security people, training employees in travel safety, and compiling a written emergency plan—significantly increases an employee's chance of avoiding or surviving an incident. But corporations are not required to have a crisis-management plan. Although insurance fees for small to mid-size firms start at $500 a year for up to $1 million of coverage, less than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies have kidnap and ransom insurance, Bangs says. And even companies that opt for such insurance often fail to train their employees on how to avoid incidents in the first place.

Optimally, there should be a partnership between employee and employer. During a stint with Doctors Without Borders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last spring, Boston-based public health consultant Libby Levison maintained constant contact with the local office. "I always told them where I was going and how I was traveling," she says. "I carried a mobile and a two-way radio, in case they needed to warn me away from certain parts of town, as well as my passport and organization ID card, in case we had to evacuate on short notice."

If you are kidnapped or illegally detained, says Spivey, know that being as respectful and cooperative as possible can dramatically increase your chances of surviving. "Be a calming influence and encourage them to keep negotiating," he adds. "Don't say, 'You can't do this to me, I'm an American' or 'No one will ever pay anything for me.' Make them see you as an individual with things in common."

David Oehl is president of Maven Power, a power equipment and services provider based in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Last year, while working for a different employer, he was the victim of a harrowing targeted kidnapping in Haiti, despite having taken such precautions as working with a security adviser who monitored area violence and served as an armed driver. An armed gang ambushed Oehl's vehicle; beat the driver; and kidnapped Oehl at gunpoint, as he recounted in a Risk Management Magazine story. Oehl complied with every demand, even offering valuables when his money ran out. He had studied the political situation, and surmised his kidnappers were anti-American, so he hid his passport and pretended he was not a U.S. citizen. He was released within a day.

Many travelers don't realize how large a role they play in being targeted for a crime. Precautions such as dressing inconspicuously, varying daily routines, being sensitive to local customs and taboos, and keeping a low profile can deter thugs, terrorists, and other malicious individuals.

As a young executive in the 1970s, Allan Eyre was incarcerated overnight while on business in Egypt, after a hotel clerk's demand for money in exchange for his room key prompted a flippant remark about the country. "When you're in someone else's country, no matter how they treat you, you're a guest," warns Eyre, now president of JAE Consulting in Chester, New Jersey. "So don't insult them by remark or action."

Hyper-awareness enabled Perryman to sidestep the Sudan hotel bombing. He figured that the large number of foreigners gathered there for the same meeting made an attractive terrorist target, so he opted instead for a nearby bed-and-breakfast.

"You don't walk around in a three-piece suit while everyone else is wearing a flowered aloha shirt," says Perryman. "Often, I'll keep a business suit in a bag and change in a bathroom on the meeting floor.

"Once, when I was working in Mombasa, Kenya, no less than Bill Gates and his wife walked by," he says. "They were wearing fishing caps, sunglasses, short-sleeve shirts, jeans, and sandals, and were with a guide—who, I later found out, was actually a senior police officer carrying a piece under his habiya. The point is, they looked like a couple of tourists with a guide, so the locals didn't pay any attention."