The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington has been working with political parties in Northern Ireland since 1985 as part of its worldwide programmes to promote democracy. So it was no surprise when it decided several months ago to honour the political leaders who helped produce the Belfast Agreement.
The eight leaders of the political parties along with President Clinton have been selected for this year's Averell Harriman Democracy Award. They will receive it from the man who spent months working with them to reach the historic agreement, former Senator George Mitchell.
But the White House in recent days has been cool on the idea that the President can knock heads together to break the deadlock on decommissioning.
A White House spokesman told The Irish Times that the implementation of the Belfast Agreement was "progressing well overall" and that "we are encouraging the parties to carry out the Good Friday Agreement to make progress to establish the political institutions" to accommodate the two traditions.
With the President having invested so much personal time and energy into the peace process, there is naturally concern in Washington lest it should all be undermined over the decommissioning log-jam. But the White House sees the primary responsibility to find a solution resting with the two governments.
If President Clinton is to make any intervention next week it will be to urge the unionist and Sinn Fein leaders to accept whatever compromise is being offered from London and Dublin, according to diplomatic sources.
Washington watched the visit of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to Dublin last week for signs that such a compromise was emerging. The idea promoted in Irish-American circles that there is a Clinton magic wand to be waved over Mr David Trimble and Mr Gerry Adams is seen as "too simplistic" here.
It will be a glittering evening in the Washington Omni Shoreham Hotel with over 1,000 guests from the US administration, Congress, the diplomatic corps and the media. The award will be a crystal replica of the Washington monument.
For two of the recipients, Mr John Hume and Mr David Trimble, it will be the prelude to the award the next day in Oslo of the even more prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. The two leaders will leave Washington while the festivities are going on to board a private jet which will fly them through the night to Oslo to be in time for the Nobel ceremony.
The NDI, which is funded by Congress and the State Department, has close links with the Democratic Party. Its involvement with Northern Ireland goes back to 1985 when it began to bring SDLP members to the US for training in "party-building" in a divided society.
Since 1994 the NDI has extended its role to a widening circle of political parties through seminars and training programmes. The NDI has also been extensively involved in helping parties in South Africa to adjust to full democracy and used this expertise to organise a historic gathering there in June 1997. In co-operation with the McCormick Institute at the University of Massachusetts, the NDI brought together 27 leaders from nine Northern Irish parties to meet more than two dozen of the South Africans who negotiated the transition to all-race elections and democratic rule.
This experience is said to have helped the Northern Ireland politicians to reach agreement in the negotiations leading up the the Belfast Agreement.
The NDI is continuing its training of the politicians elected to the new Assembly. About one-third of the 108 members attended a recent workshop to listen to the advice of senior political figures from the US and Europe. The NDI is also planning to open a full-time office in Northern Ireland.
Former Fine Gael general secretary Mr Ivan Doherty is director of political party programmes with the NDI at its Washington headquarters.
Mr Doherty was approached by the NDI after the general election in Ireland last year when his job as programme manager with the then minister for tourism and trade, Mr Enda Kenny, ended.