‘Imagine’ was started by an American, Armenian and an Azerbaijani conflict resolution practitioners in an effort to address the absence of discussion between the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Determined to bring together the representatives of two countries to have an open dialogue about positions, needs, concerns and fears of each other and search for mutually acceptable positions, the founders put together a retreat and dialogue program.

In May of 2007 with support from the United States Department of State six young professionals from Azerbaijan and six from Armenia participated in a 10-day dialogue and retreat program in the state of Maine in the United States. During the program, the 12 participants got to know each other and explored their feelings and thoughts about the conflict and each other, as well as discussed the challenges Nagorno-Karabakh conflict poses for two societies and possible solutions. The facilitators’ observations and the program evaluations during Imagine 2007 demonstrated the success of the program. The majority of the participants changed their attitudes towards the conflict, developed a greater awareness of the situation and complexity of the problems seen from a joint rather than one-sided perspective, learned the benefits of looking into the conflict as a common problem that needs to be resolved jointly, and received some basic knowledge of the methods employed in conflict resolution.

The participants of the Imagine are graduate students from Azerbaijan and Armenia who study in the United States. The participants’ age ranges from 22 to 35 and they have diverse professional backgrounds - among Imagine 2007 participants there were journalists, political scientists, financial analysts, lawyers, historians and an engineer. The young Armenians and Azerbaijanis who study in the U.S. universities are either already leaders in their respective societies or have a strong potential to become leaders.