Two decades ago, in June 2000, with democratic transitions across the world in a spirit of optimism at the dawn of the new Millennium, representatives of 106 states gathered in Warsaw for the opening Ministerial Conference Towards a Community of Democracies. The Community of Democracies (CoD) was then born as a shared initiative of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek – writes Thomas E. Garrett, Secretary General of the Community of Democracies in publication Warsaw Declaration. Roadmap to democracy.