The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is launching a new think tank focused on the Armenian Diaspora and Armenia. “Diasporan Perspectives – The Gulbenkian Initiative on Armenian Issues” (Սփիւռքեան հեռանկարներ) will commission, publish and disseminate social science research, while acting as a convening space for leaders, policy makers and experts. Diasporan Perspectives will be launched the Foundation’s UK Branch on Friday 5 December 2025 via a special roundtable discussion that will be livestreamed for a global audience.

Diasporan Perspectives aims to contextualise the Armenian experience in a wider international setting. Based in the Diaspora, the initiative brings diasporan perspectives on national issues amplifying the outside-in approach, as well as giving the Armenian Diaspora possibility to reclaim its own independent thinking on national issues. Its mission is “to foster cutting-edge social science research, analysis and strategic thinking that is transformative, open to the world and Armenian focussed.”

Projects supported by the Foundation’s Armenian Communities Department have provided the fertile ground for Diasporan Perspectives to emerge from, while developments on the ground in Armenia and in the Diaspora have made the creation of such a think tank imperative.

The launch event will be opened by the President of the Foundation, Professor António Feijó. The panelists will address key questions such as: Why such a think tank now? How will it be different from other such initiatives? What are its goals and objectives? What does a diasporan perspective entail in analysing national issues? Will it be able to reach out to decision makers? 

The speakers are:

• Razmik Panossian, Director of the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
• Vicken Cheterian, Director of the Diasporan Perspectives initiative; professor at the University in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Armine Ishkanian, Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The discussion will be in English. Speakers will take questions from the in-person audience. Tune in to watch the livestream at 17:30 on Friday 5 December, or watch the event replay.