To Walk Without Fear

A comprehensive and authoritative account of the global movement to ban landmines. This text brings together leading academics, senior policy makers, and prominent leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to examine and draw lessons from the "Ottawa Process" that culminated in December 1997 when over 120 states signed a convention to ban the use, sale, and production of landmines. An essay by Nobel laureate Jody Williams and Steve Goose, of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), describes how a global coalition of NGOs led the world toward a ban on landmines, while a chapter by the Canadian diplomats who orchestrated the "Ottawa Process" takes the reader behind the scenes into the diplomatic arm-wrestling that resulted in Canada's leadership role. The book resulted from an unusual collaboration between universities, governments, and nongovernmental organizations which developed in tandem with the negotiation process itself. Chapters were developed through a series of policy workshops, a seminar series, intensive focus-group discussions with government officials and NGO members, and a "lessons learned" exercise that brought together over 200 NGO and government participants immediately after the signing of the convention. As a result, this book provides a source of information and analyses. It should be both timely and useful to policy makers interested in drawing lessons from the Ottawa Process, to non-governmental organizations interested in replicating its results in other areas, to academic specialists and students interested in foreign policy and international affairs, and to the general public seeking an accessible account of one of the most significant global movements in recent years.