On 14h of May, 2017 Center for Social Sciences held forum for young researchers and experts from Azerbaijan and Georgia: “Azerbaijan-Georgian relations: Political Capital and Regional Dynamics” . Participants from Azerbaijan arrived on 13th of May, the forum commenced on 14th of May at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. Project is funded by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) South Caucasus Regional office.

Forum had four panels with different topics to discus. Vakhtang Lomjaria from GIPA and Dr. Altay Ismayilov from Azerbaijan State Economic University elaborated on challenges and opportunities in the Georgia-Azerbaijan economic partnership. Giorgi Khelashvili from CSS and Murad Nasibov from Eurasia Partnership Foundation Azerbaijan discussed interlinkedness of foreign policy threats and regional politics for both countries. Mariam Amashukeli (CSS) talked about unemployment and labor market in Georgia while Nazaket Azimli discussed gender sensitive economic policy making in Azerbaijan. Finally Anar Valyev from ADA Azerbaijan and George Goguadze from GRASS discussed religious extremism in Georgia and Azerbaijan, threats and state policy to eliminate radicalisation in both countries.

Participants were actively involved in the discussion. At the end of the meeting working groups were created for the second and final meeting of the Forum on 7-9th of July, 2017 in Kakheti region, Georgia.

Participant’s background from Azerbaijan and Georgia were quite diverse, they were both MA and PhD students, young researchers, lecturers and professionals in social and political sciences as well as in economy