International Contact Groups are "informal, non-permanent international bodies that are created ad hoc, with the purpose of coordinating international actors in their aim of managing a peace and security crisis in a specific
state or region (single-issue). They are founded and formed out of by states and/or
International Organizations/
Regional Organizations. They do not have own administrative structures, but are official announced and meet periodically."[1] Since 1977, at least 27 ICGs have been formed.[1]
C. Schwegmann,‘Modern Concert Diplomacy: The Contact Group and the G7/8 in Crisis Management,’ in: Guiding Global Order: G8 Governance in the Twentyfirst Century, ed. J.J. Kirton, J.P. Daniels, and A. Freytag (Ashgate, 2001), 93–121.