On Christmas Eve 2014, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) entered into force. The day marked the culmination of years of work by civil society, governments, and other international stakeholders who found common ground and purpose to negotiate and adopt the first multilateral instrument governing the global trade in conventional arms.

The week after the ATT was adopted in April 2013, I described our collective hopes for the ATT in the New York Times. To paraphrase what I wrote:

“The ATT will help prevent the irresponsible and illegal transfer of conventional arms to commit violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. It will stop unscrupulous arms dealers from operating with impunity. It will provide at least some transparency and accountability in the arms trade. And it will establish common international standards for the trade in conventional arms that countries must incorporate into national control systems.”

I also acknowledged that “while the ATT will not stop conflict overnight — and enforcement of its provisions, at the national level, will likely remain an open question for years — the ATT will most likely slow the spread of weapons that fuel conflicts and crime by making it harder for rogue regimes, rebel groups, terrorist organizations and criminals to obtain weapons.”

Ten years later, we find ourselves at an especially precarious moment. The world is undergoing crisis, conflict, and significant political turmoil. Peace often seems elusive. Momentum and attention towards the ATT has waned and its relevance questioned.

But we do have a lot to celebrate a decade on. The ATT itself and its formalization of the link between the arms trade, international law, and human suffering is an enormous normative achievement. The ATT has catalyzed the adoption or enhancement of many national-level regulations related to the conventional arms trade, likely raising the day-to-day standards of global arms transfers. And we are normalizing the idea of transparency in the arms trade and its importance in holding States accountable.

Ten years is a relatively short period of time when you are trying to change global norms and State behavior. Arguably, it is still too early to effectively analyze the bigger-picture impact that the creation of the ATT has had. The treaty itself does not contain quantitative metrics of success and it is hard to measure how many lives have been saved by transfers that never occurred.

But the ten-year anniversary provides an opportunity not just to reflect on what has been gained but, even more importantly, to consider how to best set up the treaty for the future. Stimson’s ATT at 10 project has aimed to undertake such a reflection, leveraging lessons learned from the last ten years to develop actionable insights for the treaty’s second decade.

As we move forward, preserving and improving the ATT will depend on States Parties overcoming the expanding deficit of political will that challenges the treaty’s momentum. We need to recognize that the geopolitical context has grown ever more complex, with increasing great power tensions, rising rates of conflict, and mounting skepticism towards multilateralism and international law, all of which challenge commitments made in the ATT. Throughout the ATT at 10 project, I was moved by the fundamental conviction in the importance of the work that so many people committed to more than a decade ago. I was repeatedly reminded that people matter – that the treaty was created to reduce human suffering and protect those affected by conflict and human rights abuses. We need to reflect upon the enthusiasm we witnessed at the treaty’s adoption and commit ourselves to returning to that inspiration to move forward. Ten years later, the treaty is needed now more than ever.

Rachel Stohl is Senior Vice President of Research Programs at the Stimson Center and Director of the Conventional Defense Program. Stohl was the consultant to the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on the Arms Trade Treaty in 2008 and the consultant to the U.N. ATT process from 2010-2013.