Organization and Purpose
The International Crisis Group gives advice to governments, and intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, European Union and World Bank, on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict. Its primary goals are a combination of field-based analysis, policy prescription, and aggressive advocacy, with key roles being played by a senior management team highly experienced in government and by a highly active Board of Trustees containing many senior diplomats. By its own accounts, the International Crisis Group plays a major role in six ways:
- Ringing early warning alarm bells, in the monthly CrisisWatch bulletin, and in specific ‘crisis alerts’, e.g., in Ethiopia-Eritrea, Darfur, Somalia and Pakistan;
- Contributing, on both process and substance, behind the scenes support and advice to critical peace negotiations, e.g., in Sudan, Burundi, Northern Uganda, Aceh, Nepal and Kenya;
- Producing highly detailed analysis and advice on specific policy issues in scores of conflict or potential conflict situations around the world, helping policymakers in the UN Security Council, regional organisations, donor countries and others with major influence, and in the countries at risk themselves, do better in preventing, managing and resolving conflict, and in rebuilding after it;
- Providing detailed information unobtainable elsewhere on developments regarding conflict, mass violence and terrorism of particular utility to policymakers, e.g., on the Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and Islamic Courts Union in Somalia;
- Offering new strategic thinking on some of the world’s most intractable conflicts and crises, e.g., on the Iran nuclear issue, the role of Islamism worldwide, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the way forward in Kosovo, Iraq and the Western Sahara; and
- Strongly supporting a rules-based, rather than force-based, international order, in particular significantly influencing UN resolutions and institutional structures in relation to the new international norm of the ‘responsibility to protect’.
The International Crisis Group has offices or representation in 34 locations, with teams of analysts dispatched to areas at risk of outbreak, escalation, or recurrence of conflict. Based on the information these teams gather, the organization creates analytical reports with recommendations targeted at various world leaders and organizations. In addition to this work, Crisis Group publishes a monthly newsletter, CrisisWatch, which provides a brief overview of continuing or impending violence in the world. All of the Crisis Group's reporting is available on its website.
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