The Minsk Dialogue Rule is a simple principle: two people who already agree with each other should not enter the same discussion room. If they do — they just create another echo chamber. Following this rule, the podcast brings together diverse perspectives on international security across the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian space. It is a dialogue that unfolds across the episodes. Each month, we hold two separate conversations with two experts from one of the world’s capitals. They offer differing, and sometimes even competing views on how their capital perceives threat and what a workable security order might look like. As we move from one capital to the next, these perspectives accumulate into an inclusive map of mutual threat perceptions and possible ways forward for the region.
In this episode, Alisiya Ivanova is joined by Johnny Melikyan, Senior Research Fellow at the Orbeli Center in Yerevan. They discuss the role experts play in shaping Armenia’s foreign policy, why Yerevan is spreading its bets across many partners, why peace with Azerbaijan remains unfinished, and whether small states will still have room to manoeuvre between great powers.
