The Impact of the Washington 2010 Conference

In late May, Washington D.C. played host to selected international dignitaries who gathered together to devise a global strategy for dealing with unexploded landmines. Great strides were made in world-wide coordination efforts. Many of these agreements were informal, some were regionally based (e.g., an African Demining sidebar session), and some were functionally oriented (e.g., a Victim Assistance sidebar session). But the exciting thing was that even in the midst of a gathering that had to pay extreme heed to international political sensitivities, it--like Copenhagen and Ottawa--became the forum and stimulus for real and discernible progress.