As described in ICANN's Internet Coordination Policy (ICP) -1: Internet Domain Name System Structure and Delegation (ccTLD Administration and Delegation), the domain name system structure "contains a hierarchy of names... Most Top Level Domains (TLDs) have been delegated to individual country managers, whose codes are assigned from a table ...maintained by an agency of the United Nations. These are called country-code Top Level Domains, or ccTLDs. ...Responsibility for adoption of procedures and policies for the assignment of Second Level Domain Names (SLDs), and lower level hierarchies of names, has been delegated to TLD managers, subject to the policy guidance contained in this document. Country code domains are each organized by a manager for that country...."

Pressure for ccTLDs arose from sovereignty concerns. In its June 2003 comments on the formation of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), ICANN's Evolution and Reform Committee "recognized the ccTLD community's diversity of circumstances and opinions concerning what are the responsibilities of ccTLD administrators that fall strictly under the purview of national or otherwise local jurisdiction, and which involve the need for global harmonization and coordination."

The Committee explains: "The ccNSO will be the forum where this distinction will be further understood and developed, and in which the global aspects will be considered thoughtfully by those affected. The ccNSO, as a supporting organization, has the purpose of engaging in activities relevant to country-code top-level domains, specifically (1) developing policy recommendations to the ICANN Board; and (2) nurturing consensus across the constituencies, including the name-related activities of ccTLDs."