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Abstract
This special issue studies the International Crisis Group (icg), one of the most notable and widely referenced producers of knowledge about conflict areas, used extensively by policy makers, the media and academics. The authors take different theoretical and methodological approaches to make sense of this hard-to-ignore conflict expert, exploring the icg’s daily operations and role in international politics. This introduction sets the scene by offering a critical exploration of the organisation and its approach to the construction of political knowledge. It analyses the icg’s position in the conflict-related knowledge market and the sources of its expert authority. It then discusses the organisation’s roles – from mediation to instrumentalisation – in the ‘battlefield of ideas’ in conflict and intervention contexts and its potential to make an impact on policy framings and outcomes. It shows that studies of the icg need to ‘unpack’ the organisation in order to account for it as both a highly successful international expert brand and a very heterogeneous actor in specific contexts and at specific times.
Acknowledgements
The idea for this special issue emerged from the cooperative research of the academic network ‘Knowledge and Power in International Security Governance’, funded by the German Research Foundation (dfg). Thanks to all involved for being such brilliant colleagues. Thanks are also due to Nadja Zimmermann at Bremen University and Jana Wattenberg at Frankfurt University for their sterling research contributions: the analysis of icg staff’s LinkedIn profiles, of the composition of icg’s Board of Trustees, and of an immense number of WikiLeaks cables for mentions of icg reports and staff. Last but not least, I am very grateful to interview and correspondence partners among (former) icg staff for very informative conversations.
Notes
1. icg, Fifteen Years on the Frontlines, 10.
2. McGann, Citation2013 Global Go To Think Tanks, 47. For the ranking methodology see pp 11–16.
3. Ibid., 27. Transparency International (no. 5) and Amnesty International (no. 7) may also count as icg competitors in some respects. Ibid., 71.
4. Ibid., 30.
5. For the following statistics, see icg, “About.” The numbers on the icg website are contradictory; elsewhere it talks about ‘over 50 conflict and potential conflict situations’.
6. For a list of staff, see http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/about/staff.aspx.
7. A former UN assistant secretary-general and special adviser named three main information sources for staff in the UN Departments of Political Affairs and Peacekeeping Operations: international press clippings, UN mission reports and icg (plus other ingo) reports. Interview, New York, March 2012. WikiLeaks cables suggest that icg reports are widely read by US embassies. See also endorsements by policy makers, at icg, “About.”
8. WikiLeaks cables confirm that meetings between US embassies and icg representatives take place frequently.
9. McGann, Citation2013 Global Go To Think Tanks, 72. For campaigns, see also icg, Fifteen Years on the Frontlines, passim.
10. For a list of Board of Trustee members, see http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/about/board.aspx.
11. McGann, Citation2013 Global Go To Think Tanks, 91, 95, 97, 98.
12. Some academics have dedicated article sections to in-depth discussions of icg reports. See, for example, Heathershaw, “Tajikistan”; and Lemay-Hébert, “The ‘Empty-shell’ Approach.” Hofmann analyses the icg rather superficially as an example of learning in international society. Hofmann, Learning in Modern International Society.
13. I have to plead guilty: in my book on statebuilding in Bosnia, I gratefully relied on 12 icg reports and a further seven reports from its strongest competitor in the Balkans at the time, the European Stability Initiative (esi), without exploring how the reports’ information had been gathered and processed.
14. Rüb, “Wissenspolitologie,” 345.
15. The following discussion of different forms of knowledge is based on the categories set out in ibid., 348–349.
16. E.g. FIRST3.0, a database run by sipri, to which the icg contributes. http://first.sipri.org.
17. Email correspondence, former icg field analyst, March 2014.
18. Cf. icg, Fifteen Years on the Frontlines, 30: ‘one of the organisation’s most valued products’.
19. Stone, Policy Paradox, 269–378.
20. Rüb, “Wissenspolitologie,” 349.
21. Ibid., 350.
22. Nullmeier and Rüb, Die Transformation der Sozialpolitik; and Rüb, “Wissenspolitologie.”
23. Rüb, “Wissenspolitologie,” 350 (author’s translation).
24. Bourdieu, Practical Reason; and Bourdieu and Wacquant, An Invitation.
25. Waldman, “The Use of Statebuilding Research,” endnote 2.
26. Oberg, “The International Crisis Group”; and Bliesemann de Guevara, Gebrauchshinweise beachten!, 5.
27. icg, Financial Statements; and icg, “Who Supports Crisis Group?” http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/support/who-supports-crisisgroup.aspx.
28. Interviews, icg senior staff and founder, New York and Washington DC, March 2012. The founding member recalled, however, that in the early years dependence on a few donors (especially George Soros) was much higher and their influence on where to take the organisation geographically and strategically was crucial.
29. Email correspondence, March 2014.
30. Interview, senior icg staff member, New York, March 2012.
31. These numbers can only be approximations, of course: not all staff are represented on LinkedIn and, of those who are, we only know the career information they have chosen to make public. The profiles differ accordingly, from very detailed cvs to profiles which only display a minimum presence on the social network.
32. This distinction has not been clear-cut in recent practice, however. In the case of Sri Lanka the icg has been involved in a vocal post-conflict campaign to bring to light the Sri Lankan government’s war crimes. icg, War Crimes in Sri Lanka. This rather new involvement in human rights issues, possibly a result of president Arbour’s initiative, was judged as positive by a senior icg staff member, while rejected as ‘not icg’s business’ by one of the organisation’s founders. Interviews, New York and Washington DC, March 2012.
33. Waldman, “The Use of Statebuilding Research.” Practitioners generally perceive even research projects and centres aimed explicitly at producing policy-relevant research as ‘not useful enough’.
34. Interviews and email correspondence with various (former) icg staff, March 2012 and March 2014.
35. icg, “About.”
36. Cf. the ‘king’ archetype of leadership in Steyrer, “Charisma.”
37. Categories based on World Bank classification available from its website.
38. The Board’s symbolic capital also seems to work within the icg among staff. icg, Fifteen Years on the Frontlines, 8.
39. Email correspondence, March 2014. (emphasis in the original)
40. The Middle East in general, Iraq specifically. icg, Fifteen Years on the Frontlines, 25, 27.
41. Elwert, “Gewaltmärkte”; and Rufin and Jean, Economie des guerres civiles.
42. icg, Annual Report 2013, 5.
43. Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse, 42–72.
44. Interview, former icg field analyst, March 2012.
45. Ibid.
46. Heathershaw and Lambach, “Introduction.”
47. Grigat’s assessment. See also her contribution in this issue.
48. Bøås’s assessment. See also his contribution in this issue.
49. Koddenbrock’s assessment. See also his contribution in this issue.
50. Hochmüller and Müller’s assessment. See also their contribution in this issue.
51. Fisher’s assessment. See also his contribution in this issue.
52. For example, icg, Islam.
53. Email correspondence, former icg analyst, March 2014. He added, ‘Having said this, one icg officer once told me that icg reports receive the largest Internet hits in Langley, Virginia’.
54. Interviews, icg staff, New York and Washington DC, March 2012; and icg, Fifteen Years on the Frontlines, 23, 43.
55. icg, “About.”
56. icg, Annual Report 2006, 21.
57. icg, Annual Report 2004, 26.
58. icg, Annual Report 2013, 5.
59. Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse, 42–72.
60. Boswell, “The Political Functions of Expert Knowledge,” 472.
61. Waldman, “The Use of Statebuilding Research,” 5. (emphasis in the original)