The Stimson Center’s Space Security Project, with grant support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund, and the New-Land Foundation, convened a three-day workshop at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Conference Center in Italy from November 11-13, 2008. Two operating foundations, the Secure World Foundation and the One Earth Future Foundation, partnered with Stimson to make this workshop a reality.

The workshop was convened with governmental and nongovernmental experts to discuss ways to provide momentum to space diplomacy and to facilitate new diplomatic initiatives in 2009. Participating in this workshop were diplomats from Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States. Also participating were individuals advising the Obama and McCain campaigns. In order to promote meaningful dialogue, workshop discussions were off the record and views were expressed on a not-for-attribution basis. This Executive Summary does not reflect all the views expressed at the workshop. Nor are participants bound by the individual views expressed below.

During the course of our deliberations, workshop participants conceived of three initiatives that might promote space security, if governments would be prepared to move beyond current positions. It was clearly understood that governmental representatives were not committed to the diplomatic agenda discussed at Bellagio, nor were they asked to support this agenda, in whole or in part. Participants agreed to take these proposals back to their capitals for due consideration.

More information about the conference is available here.