Help Us Stop Deadly Conflict

Dear Crisis Group supporter,

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the International Crisis Group. In the past decade, Crisis Group has established itself as one of the world’s leading independent sources of analysis and advice to governments and international bodies on the prevention and resolution of conflict and terrorist violence.

Our efforts make a difference. In the darkest and nastiest corners of the world, Crisis Group is the eyes, the ears, and the conscience of the international community. We are on the ground in 50 existing or potential conflict situations, from Afghanistan to Angola, from Congo to Colombia, from Pakistan to Philippines. We produce nearly one hundred reports each year that have become the required reading – and in some cases the acknowledged “gold standard” – for busy policy-makers within governments and international organisations. Our experts are former government officials, relief and development workers, academics and journalists, and they know what policy-makers need to have to do their jobs: hard-hitting and tough-minded analysis and recommendations that draw on a wealth of practical experiences.

Since its founding, Crisis Group has made its mark in multiple ways, including supporting the peace processes for Congo, Burundi, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia; helping build peace throughout the Balkans; analysing the post-9/11 terrorist threats and the roots of Islamist violence from Indonesia to Pakistan to the Gulf; identifying in credible detail before anyone else the elements of an achievable settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict; generating new international pressures on authoritarian regimes in Central Asia; designing new strategies for movement out of the morass in Colombia; and articulating a clear vision for resolving the nuclear standoffs in North Korea and Iran, and the cross-Strait tension between China and Taiwan.

Crisis Group has stayed true to the mission defined by its founders ten years ago: working to prevent deadly conflict worldwide. Our methods – frontline field research and analysis combined with targeted, high-level advocacy – have proven remarkably effective. That is why UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls Crisis Group “a global voice of conscience and a genuine force for peace”, and why U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls us “widely respected and influential”.

There is ample evidence to show that the international community is doing much better in its efforts in preventive diplomacy, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction. As the recently published Human Security Report shows, the number of conflicts and violent deaths worldwide has in fact dropped dramatically since the early 1990s, while the number of conflicts resolved by negotiation has risen equally dramatically.

Yet while there are fewer conflicts today, there is no shortage of deadly crises on which to focus. One thousand people die each day in the Congo from conflict-related disease and malnutrition; more than two million are displaced and suffering grievously in Darfur; tens of thousands children have been kidnapped and forced into service as child soldiers in Uganda; thousands have been killed in the insurgency in Nepal; and terrorism continues to threaten countries across the world.

Please help us to continue our work on preventing conflict and stopping mass violence of all kinds. Together we can make a real difference in reducing the destruction and suffering from conflict around the world. However much you feel that you can contribute – $25, $250, $2500 or $25,000, or more or less – will assist us in our mission to make the world a safer and saner place.

You can give right now by credit card on our secure website. If you prefer, you can download a payment form and fax or mail it to us, or you can make a stock or wire transfer. All of these options are available on the donation page of our website.

We need your support and deeply appreciate anything that you can do to help us.

Sincerely,

GARETH EVANS
President