International Crisis Group

Crisis Group was founded in 1995 as an international non-governmental organisation by a group of prominent statesmen who despaired at the international community’s failure to anticipate and respond effectively to the tragedies of Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia. The group was led by Morton Abramowitz (former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Thailand, then President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Mark Malloch-Brown (former head of the UN Development Programme, then UN Deputy Secretary-General and UK Minister), and its first Chairman, U.S. Senator George Mitchell. The idea was to create a new organisation with a highly professional staff to serve as the world’s eyes and ears for impending conflicts, and with a highly influential board that could mobilise effective action from global policymakers.

Crisis Group today is generally regarded as the world’s leading source of information, analysis and policy advice to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.