That the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) remains poorly known attests to the past secrecy and poor communications policy of this important agency that was created in 1863. Despite ameliorative changes in recent years, it is still true to say that in any part of the world, save perhaps Geneva, one can complete a program of advanced study in international relations, even concentrating on international law and organization, and still be ill informed about the ICRC. One can find legal analyses of the Geneva Conventions and other parts of international humanitarian law (IHL – the law dealing with the protection of human dignity in armed conflict), and one can find histories of the evolution of this law. Both bodies of literature contain passing and hence superficial reference to the ICRC. The organization itself has published several accounts of its history and tasks, even if these are not fully candid. But until rather recently one could not find a substantial and significant body of work, in any language, made up of independent and analytical studies concerning what the agency did and how it took its decisions.

One eventually discovered an ICRC that was a private Swiss agency mandated by public international law to undertake certain tasks in war, such as visiting detainees and providing relief. But most outsiders knew very little about what it did or how.