2001 comments 2002 comments

Some Feedback on ICG
January 2001 – October 2003

• “...In just eight years since ICG’s founding, you have become one of the world’s premier Non-Governmental Organizations, working from the Balkans to Burma, from Central Africa to Colombia, and many places in between... ICG has an expert presence and staying power in places that make headlines, as well as in places which tend to get crowded out of them. ICG tells power what it thinks and advocates with both passion and effectiveness. It is a continuous source of ideas and insights for Governments, Parliaments, International Institutions, the media and fellow NGOs. In short, ICG is an organization that matters...”
  -Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, 10 October 2003
  The full text of the remarks of Secretary of State Colin Powell at the International Crisis Group Reception in Washington DC on 10 October 2003 can be found here.
  
  

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• “Together in a remarkably short time, you have made the International Crisis Group a global voice of conscience, and a genuine force for peace. Your mediation work – and your leadership in early warning and conflict prevention – have been enormously important. So has your intellectual contribution to finding new approaches to long-standing conflicts. Your well researched and carefully argued reports have greatly helped us in understanding the origins and complexities of the conflict in which we become involved – often at short notice.”
  -Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General, 5 October 2002
  
  

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• “Your recent report on Iran was excellent."
  -Behrouz Afagh, Eurasia Regional Editor, BBC World Service, on ICG Middle East Report No. 19 Dealing with Iran's Nuclear Program, 29 October 2003
  
  
• “Your reports have become my source of choice for illuminating the challenges facing the world throughout the region."
  -James Russell, Senior Lecturer, Department of National Secuirty Affairs, Navel Post Graduate School,  on ICG Briefing Iran: Discontent and Disarray, 17 October 2003
  
  
• “This report is by far the best analysis I've seen on contemprary Iran."
  -Dr. Ali Manoucheri, Professor of Political Science Tehran, on ICG Middle East Briefing Iran: Discontent and Disarray, 15 October 2003
  
  
• “I take the opportunity of this letter to express my sincere congratulations for the quality and independence of the reports ICG has produced, in particular about Central Africa, as well as my full encouragement for the continuation of your mission."
  -Dominique de Villepin, French Foreign Minister, 15 October 2003
  
  
• “...The International Crisis Group has a unique niche in policy analysis. Your reports are especially helpful because they are issued in real time, rather than in retrospect. We might not always agree with all the recommendations, but the analysis is always sharp and thoughtful and helps to make our decision-making better grounded.”
  -Louise Fréchette, United Nations Deputy Secretary General, New York, 9 October 2003
  
  
• “It’s been just 8 years since ICG was created, and it has grown rapidly and had a profound impact.” click here to view in full.
  -Senator George J. Mitchell, ICG Chairman Emeritus, Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, on the occasion of the ICG Award Dinner, New York, 9 October 2003 
  
  
• “An organization like ICG will be particularly needed for the next decade as the UN continues weak and the US is preoccupied or in retreat from more nation building. . . . It means leadership, a great staff, having something to say including the willingness to tell truth to power including your donors, and a perseverance to pursue ideas and policies in the face of the domestic political difficulties of democratic nations and the temerity of international organizations. I believe all that now exists.” click here to view in full.
  -Morton Abramowitz, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, on receiving the ICG Founders Award, ICG Award Dinner, New York, 9 October 2003 
  
  
• “The task that the ICG has set itself is a difficult one.  It wants to influence policy makers by giving them an incisive and authoritative analysis of a crisis situation.  It produces a large number of reports but it is not the quantity that matters but the quality.  Writing the reports is the easy part, getting the relevant people to read them and pay attention to them and be influenced by them, is the difficult one.  And that is where the ICG has been so successful in a very short period of time. . .  I support the ICG exactly because it is impartial and professional . . .  It is very difficult to remain impartial and professional at a time when passions are running high, but the ICG has managed to carve out a unique position for itself.  It is doing really important work and it deserves your support.” click here to view in full.
  -George Soros, Chairman, Open Society Institute, on receiving the ICG Founders Award, ICG Award Dinner, New York, 9 October 2003
  
  
• “Congratulations on your monthly bulletin; it is outstanding…International events have made your Group vital. If it did not exist, it would have to be invented.”
  -Justice Michael Kirby, High Court of Australia on ICG Monthly Bulletin CrisisWatch, 11 September 2003. click here to view further comments on CrisisWatch
  
  
• “The important information contained in the document and its pertinent analysis constitute a highly valuable input for the work of the South East Asia Unit Desk Officers.”
  -Pierre Amilhat, Head of South East Asia Unit, External Relations Directorate General, European Commission on ICG Report Jemaah Islamiyah in South East Asia: Damaged but still Dangerous, 8 September 2003
  
  
• “CrisisWatch is an extremely ambitious project and a wonderful idea. I enjoyed the first issue immensely.”
  -George S. Loening, Select Equity Group, Inc., 8 September 2003
  
  
• “Congratulations on your excellent new CrisisWatch publication. It fills a real gap in the market. I wish you every success.”
  -Chris Patten, European Union Commissioner for External Affairs on ICG Monthly Bulletin CrisisWatch, 4 September 2003
  
  
• “I wanted to express my deepest appreciation for excellent job which is being done by your highly professional team on monitoring, analysing and recommending. Your high quality reports and scrupulous situation assessments makes your Group among the best in a constellation of well-known think-tanks.”
  -Muratbek Azymbakiev, Counsellor of Policy Planning Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kyrgyzstan on ICG Monthly Bulletin CrisisWatch, 3 September 2003
  
  
• “Congratulations on ICG’s reports on China. I think your work in the area is essential to our group’s future.”
  -Wesley Clark, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Member of ICG Board of Trustees on ICG Report Taiwan Strait I, II & III, 4 August 2003
  
  
• “The Committee believes that the International Crisis Group provides high-quality analysis and policy recommendations that can help prevent and reduce the level of deadly violence resulting from complex crises.”
  -U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee Report (HReport 108-222), 21 July 2003
  
  
• “…the International Crisis Group, whose reports analyse the causes of conflict and whose recommendations assist in the formulation of policies and programs by the United States, United Nations, and others.”
  -U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Report (SReport 108-106), 17 July 2003
  
  
• “The ICG report is a very helpful contribution on which we shall certainly draw on in the future when considering how best to target and monitor financial assistance to the Palestinians.”
  -Anthony Cary, Cabinet of Chris Patten, European Commission, on ICG Report Islamic Social Welfare Activism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: A Legitimate Target, 3 June 2003
  
  
• “…the International Crisis Group - whose reports on war and instability everywhere from South-East Asia to the Balkans are fast becoming indispensable...”
  -Michael Elliot, the Aussie Rules of Foreign Policy, Time Magazine Canadian Edition, 26 May 2003
  
  
• “Your briefings are outstanding. They are clear and easy to read. If they contain technical terms they are explained; you are balanced and fair. The layout allows me to pick out what is important. The briefings are on time up to date and very relevant. I have just returned from Israel and with your help I was better briefed than most! Thank you.”
  -Lord Stone of Blackheath, on ICG Report A Middle East Roadmap to Where? 17 May 2003
  
  
• “Not only does [the Annual Report] show the enormous range of issues in which ICG has been involved, it is also a brilliantly presented report, clear, concise and readable. I wish that all reports were so effective.”
  -Justice Michael Kirby, High Court of Australia, on ICG Annual Report 2003, 9 May 2003
  
  
• “The report will be very useful for us as reference material. I want to take advantage of this opportunity to congratulate you for the steady growth of your prestigious firm.”
  -Leila Rachid de Cowles, Ambassador of the Embassy of Paraguay to Washington DC, on ICG Annual Report 2003, 30 April 2003
  
  
• “Thank you for your report on Angola. As always the ICG does excellent studies with practical proposals and this is one of them.”
  -Professor Semakula Kiwanuka, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary/Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN, on ICG Report Angola’s Choice: Reform or Regress, 17 April 2003
  
  
• “Sweden greatly appreciates the accomplishments of ICG. The analytical reports produced by the Group are of excellent quality and very useful to the Foreign Ministry. I look forward to the continued efforts by your organisation, not least in the newly identified areas of HIV/AIDS and security.”
  -Annika Söder, State Secretary for Development Co-operation Sweden, 15 April 2003
  
  
• “The 17 recommendations outlined in your report are clear and well reasoned.”
  -Susan Whelan, Minister for International Cooperation in Canada, on ICG report Afghanistan: Judicial Reform and Transitional Justice, 9 April 2003
  
  
• “I thank you very much for your truly excellent reports! They have proved to be an important source of information and analysis for me while I served in the Ministry.”
  -Fredrik Arthur, Norway’s Consul General in Murmansk, 7 April 2003
  
  
• “[I am writing to let you know] how helpful the recent publications on Iraq of the International Crisis Group have been to me and the whole Save the Children team working on Iraq relief and reconstruction. Their analysis of the Kurdish situation and the post-war political challenges provide a very important focus for our advocacy.”
  -Charlie McCormack, Head of Save the Children USA, 5 April 2003
  
  
• “An excellent roadmap for the international community is provided in the excellent 21 February report of the International Crisis Group, entitled A Framework for Responsible Aid to Burundi. I can not improve on the ICG’s general recommendations.”
  -Statement of Howard Wolpe, Consulting Director The Africa Project, The Woodrow Wilson International Center, Congressional Testimony by Federal Document Clearing House, 3 April 2003
  
  
• “I welcome ICG’s initiative. Promoting a clearer idea of what, in some detail, a settlement would look like is an important way of addressing the fears of Israelis, Palestinians and others about what they would have to give up, what they would get in return, and what assurances they would have that the agreement would be respected. I hope that ICG publishing their ideas will help encourage the Israelis and Palestinian publics to focus on the potential for a solution and press their leaders to work towards it. Only an NGO could have done this.”
  -Jack Straw, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, letter to the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee on ICG Report Middle East Endgame I: Getting to a Comprehensive Arab-Israeli Peace Settlement, 2 April 2003
  
  
• “Once again, the ICG has produced a very informative and constructive report…Thank you for the good work.”
  -Semakula Kiwanuka, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary/Permanent Representative of Uganda to the UN, on ICG report A Framework for Responsible Aid to Burundi, 6 March 2003
  
  
• “ICG’s reports…are remarkably thorough and analytically sophisticated.”
  -Norman Dorsen, Frederick I. and Grace A. Stokes Professor of Law, New York University, 6 February 2003
  
  
• “I am writing to let you know how much I appreciate your publications. I learn so much from your team of experts. I consider ICG to be the best, most reliable, and most interesting source of information on conflict areas around the globe. I assigned your articles in the course I teach on terrorism at Kennedy School; and your website is on my syllabus for a course I’m co teaching at KSG and the Divinity School on religion and conflict this spring. I can’t thank you enough for your wonderful work. It helps me in my research on terrorism and also in my teaching.”
  -Jessica Stern, JFK School of Government, Harvard University, 28 January 2003
  
  
• “The material…from Indonesia is path-breaking and essential and I rely upon it very much.”
  -Paul Kelly, International Editor, The Australian, 24 January 2003
  
  
• “I think ICG is a great and extraordinary organisation.”
  -Bono (Paul Hewson), Lead Singer U2, Letter, 19 January 2003
  
  
• “Thank you…for another excellent International Crisis Group report. We are pleased to see that many of the recommendations detailed by the ICG in this latest report have already been realized.”
  -Bill Graham, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, on ICG report Moving Macedonia Toward Self-Sufficiency: a New Security Approach for NATO and the EU, 14 January 2003

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