ABSTRACT

In 1863 the International Committee of the Red Cross started with five volunteers and no budget. In 2005 the organization consisted of some 2,000 professional staff, another 10,000 support staff, and an annual budget of about $600 million.1 Over the years it relied less on volunteers and more on highly educated, trained professionals. Its budget, however, remained dependent on voluntary contributions rather than assessed dues, mostly from states and secondarily from RC societies. Obtaining information about how and why the ICRC made its decisions regarding particular problems is not easy, although the general process can be established. It was reasonably clear that the modern ICRC constituted a highly professional small bureaucracy that tried to combine creativity in the field with consistency of general policy, as established by its Geneva headquarters.