In its first year, the Athens Working Group: Transforming the Balkans was a joint effort by two eminent institutions, the Athens-based Hellenic Centre for European Studies (EKEM) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. The initiative was led by Theodore Couloumbis (Professor Emeritus, University of Athens) and Janusz Bugajski (Lavrentis Lavrentiadis Chair, CSIS) and resulted in the joint publication of a number of well-received Policy Reports, as well as an international conference on the Western Balkans, which took place in Washington DC, 10 May 2010. The make-up of the original Washington Working Group was as follows:

Chair: Janusz Bugajski
Director, CSIS New European Democracies

Heather Conley
Director, CSIS Europe Program, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs

Stephen J. Flanagan
Senior Vice President and Director for International Security, CSIS, Former Special Assistant to the U.S. President; senior director for Central and Eastern Europe.

Ambassador Robert S. Gelbard
Chairman, Washington Global Partners, LLC, Former U.S. Special Representative for the Balkans.

Ian O. Lesser
Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States.

James Miller
Professor, Georgetown University

Ambassador Thomas Miller
President and CEO, The United Nations Association of the United States of America, Former U.S. Ambassador to Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Ambassador Charles P. Ries
Senior Fellow, Rand Corporation, Former U.S. Ambassador to Greece

William H. Siefken
Senior Associate, CSIS,  Former Director for CEE and Eurasia, Lockheed Martin Corporation; former Deputy Director for EUCOM and CENTCOM.

John Sitilides
Chairman, Southeast Europe, Woodrow Wilson Center