00:00:06:04 - 00:00:38:15

Unknown

Good afternoon. I am Julio Frenk, the still relatively new chancellor of UCLA. It is my distinct honor. Thank you. Thank you. It's my honor to welcome all of you to UCLA for the Bernard Brody Distinguished lecture on the Conditions of Peace. Before we begin, I would like to thank, Professor Rosalia and the Berkeley Center for International Relations for hosting today's event.

00:00:38:17 - 00:01:03:22

Unknown

And, of course, President Sarkisian for being with us. It really is a great honor to have an esteemed former head of state who's also a scientist. A rare combination in our world. So welcome to UCLA, Richard Sarkisian. I also like to welcome Eric, Iranian, who has done so much to advance global peace and justice, himself a great friend of this university and one of our faculty members.

00:01:04:00 - 00:01:29:15

Unknown

Both his promise Armenian Institute and the Promise Institute for Human Rights were established through Eric's vision. In addition to education, research and service, one of the crucial roles of universities is to convene. The convening function is very important. It's through that function that we bring people, together with multiple perspectives to address issues of great importance.

00:01:29:17 - 00:02:06:09

Unknown

This is, what makes universities good universities intellectually bright, vibrant, places and where great transformative ideas go. And then they go out into the rest of the world and, and, and improve the condition of the world. Universities are among the most enduring institutions. We've been around and, and as you many of you know, modern academia traces its origins back to the 11th and 12th century universities where scholars devoted themselves to the enlightened pursuit of knowledge.

00:02:06:11 - 00:02:40:15

Unknown

Now, in comparison to its European counterparts, UCLA is still a very young university. Just this last Friday, less than a week ago, UCLA celebrated its 106 anniversary. So which is for universities, a relatively short period of time, but we've achieved a really a remarkable, record of, of, of accomplishments in just this 106 years. It is now the been consistently for eight years, ranked as the number one public university in the United States.

00:02:40:17 - 00:03:11:04

Unknown

It's become an unmatched center for creativity, for innovation, and for democratic values. Our faculty and staff and students build knowledge that crosses disciplines and illuminate meaning and purpose through arts and the humanities, which we cultivate here. And then we care for our community through the top health care in L.A. and through other forms of public service. While at the same time advancing the frontiers of knowledge.

00:03:11:06 - 00:03:40:14

Unknown

When our students graduate, they're ready to be engaged citizens who understand societal issues deeply and want to improve the lives of others. But at UCLA, our stature as a leading university requires to achieve even more. It is crucial that we translate our scholarship and research into evidence that then issues to address and solve the most complex problem facing humanity.

00:03:40:16 - 00:04:06:04

Unknown

And that's the way we advance science. We translate the knowledge we produce and that that way we can, improve, the, the create great benefit for society. And, and we do that from the way we live, from our longevity, from to protecting human rights, to trying to deal with issues like polarization in our in our society.

00:04:06:05 - 00:04:33:11

Unknown

And that's, that's what we're doing exactly. By convening this important event today that the title of today's lecture is The Conditions of Peace. And during contentious times, we should remember that we hold the power to reach out and connect with each other, even when it appears difficult. Events like today's lecture help to connect communities. They connect UCLA with thinkers and doers like all of you.

00:04:33:13 - 00:05:01:03

Unknown

And they opened the doors to greater understanding, empathy, and kindness. So it is about building bridges by convening. It's about moving toward solutions, and it's about creating greater connection. Something we really need in our society. I thank you for your presence here. It's an honor to welcome all of you. Thank you.

00:05:01:05 - 00:05:29:12

Unknown

For. Thank you, Chancellor Frank. Welcome, everyone, to the 2025 Bernard Brody Lecture. I'm Carla Stella. I direct the Burkle Center here at UCLA, and I'm the promised professor at the UCLA law school. As chancellor Frank noted, we have been doing this lecture for, I think, over four decades. Past Brody lecturers include President Jimmy Carter, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki moon.

00:05:29:14 - 00:05:55:13

Unknown

Last year, our speaker was Sonia marine, former prime minister of Finland, who helped Finland become NATO's newest member. This year, we're very excited and very, pleased to have as our guest, His Excellency Armin Sarkisian, former president and Prime Minister of Armenia. So in a moment, he's going to get a proper lecture. Sorry. Proper introduction. I'm just going to say a little bit about how this is is all going to go.

00:05:55:15 - 00:06:17:14

Unknown

The topic of the Brody lecture, as the Chancellor mentioned, has always been about peace and security. The lecture was inaugurated during the Cold War, a time when there was significant conflict in the world. Things seem very dark. Over the years, we lived in some more peaceful times today. I think it's fair to say we live in some darkening times.

00:06:17:16 - 00:06:42:01

Unknown

War is raging in many parts of the world. And President Sarkisian, in his new book, which he will talk about a little bit today, talks about some of the diplomacy challenges, the geopolitical challenges, the economic challenges that small states face as they navigate that very difficult world. So, I'm going to invite Eric Israel to introduce President Sarkisian in a moment.

00:06:42:03 - 00:07:04:15

Unknown

After that introduction, President Sarkisian will give some remarks here from the podium. He and I will then sit down in these chairs. We'll have a brief conversation, about the world, about Armenia, about his ideas, his thoughts, maybe even his new book, which I learned about this morning. And then I'm going to open it up to questions from all of you when we get to that.

00:07:04:17 - 00:07:38:12

Unknown

Please raise your hand and please wait for me to call on you. We do have microphones. I think we have two, two microphones. So just take a moment to wait for that microphone to come. Most importantly, please keep your questions short and to the point. There is only one lecture today and it's Armen Sarkisian. So to introduce our distinguished guest I've asked Eric Israélien, the Lindsay Foundation professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and co-founder of the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, to come to the stage.

00:07:38:13 - 00:07:58:13

Unknown

Eric is a renowned scientist physician, also somehow an Emmy nominated producer, philanthropist, entrepreneur and official designated UCLA optimist. So please join me in welcoming Eric Israeli and.

00:07:58:15 - 00:08:17:18

Unknown

Thank you so much. It's truly an honor for me to be here. And I'm going to read this introduction because as you learn, about President Sarkisian, he's really a remarkable person. And, I want to make sure that I cover all the bases prior to you hearing him speak. I want to thank the Chancellor for being here.

00:08:17:19 - 00:08:40:21

Unknown

I want to thank Cal, Alexandra, Molly and the entire Burkle Center team. I want to say thank. And Carl goes and the promises that, promise Armenian Institute as well, because, this is a really unique opportunity for many of us to have an opportunity to have, such a respected and, kind of accomplished speaker who has really a unique background.

00:08:40:21 - 00:09:02:22

Unknown

So I'm really excited for all of you to have an opportunity to hear him speak. And I see a lot of my worlds colliding here. So it's an honor for me to be here at UCLA and a really, an incredible university. And I'm so happy that he has a chance to spend some time here. In fact, Chancellor Bloch and I went to Armenia a few years ago when, President Sarkisian was in office.

00:09:02:22 - 00:09:30:17

Unknown

And I look forward to having an opportunity to take, Chancellor Frank to Armenia someday. One day, if if you ever run across Chancellor Frank, ask him about the other dissident, a villain who's a famous, Armenian public health, scholar and a mentor of his. So it's an interesting connection for all of us. So, President Sarkisian served as the fourth president of Armenia and the Republic of Armenia and held office from 2018, until 2022.

00:09:30:19 - 00:10:06:18

Unknown

And he was born in Yerevan. And President Sarkisian is distinguished career has spanned so many diverse fields. What you're going to hear about. But academia, diplomacy, international organization. He graduated from Yerevan State University in 1976 with a degree in physics, and later earned a Doctor of Science in theoretical physics and mathematics. After completing postgraduate studies in 1978 and from 1976 to 1990, he was a professor of physics at his alma mater and and founded the subdivision for computer modeling of complex System at Yerevan State University's Department of Theoretical Physics.

00:10:06:20 - 00:10:36:02

Unknown

His academic career took him abroad with significant positions at prestigious institutions. In 1984 to 1985 he was a visiting researcher and later professor at University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. His work continued at various international universities, including Moscow State University and University is really across Europe and the United Kingdom, and then in 1991 he transitioned to diplomacy, first serving as Armenia charge of affairs and later as ambassador to the United Kingdom until 1996.

00:10:36:04 - 00:11:21:18

Unknown

He also held the role of Armenia Senior Ambassador to Europe and was Armenia's ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Vatican. His diplomatic work expanded Armenia's global presence and helped to strengthen ties with European institutions. His experience in governance extended to Armenia's domestic affairs as Prime Minister of Armenia from 1996 to 1997, and he was later reappointed ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Vatican between 1998 and 2000, and from 2000 to 2013, he expanded his influence and global affairs to role as a special adviser to the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a senior figure in multiple international organizations, including the Eurasia House international and

00:11:21:18 - 00:11:46:22

Unknown

the East-West Institute, and he also worked with major corporations including British Petroleum, Alcatel, and Telefonica. In 2013, President Sarkozy returned to diplomacy as Armenia's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Before becoming President of Armenia in 2018, where I had the honor of being there at the inauguration and during his presidency, he worked to expand Armenia's international standing through his tenure.

00:11:47:00 - 00:12:18:07

Unknown

Although his tenure was marked by political challenges and, ultimately he left office in 2022 throughout his career, president is our king is because our kitchen has received numerous accolades, including Armenia's first Degree Medal for services to the homeland in 2017 and the Saint Gregory the Illuminator Medal of from the Catholic first of all Armenians in 2008, has offered numerous scientific articles in the fields of physics, astrophysics and political science, and holds an honorary doctorate from the National Academy of Sciences in Armenia.

00:12:18:09 - 00:12:40:16

Unknown

He's a highly respected figure in both political and academic circles, and he is married to Nunez Sarkisian, and they have two sons and three beautiful grandchildren. And I have the honor of being godfather to one of his grandchildren. So, we are connected in so many different ways. And it's an honor for me. And he continues to be recognized for his significant contributions to Armenia's development and global engagement.

00:12:40:16 - 00:12:59:14

Unknown

So, without any further ado, please welcome President Armen Sarkisian.

00:12:59:16 - 00:13:36:09

Unknown

Is it afternoon or evening? So let's say good evening. Mr. Chancellor, it's, it's a great honor to be here. These are not just formal words that, I have to say. It's, I really think. And I really feel that it's a great honor to be here for many reasons. I think when I was born by my parents, one of them was, young architect, and the other one was professor of psychology.

00:13:36:11 - 00:13:58:04

Unknown

Think some of my love was connected with education, although formally, if I think about my life, I was listening. Eric, I hope, I will ask my friends next time not to go into that sort of a detail. There were more that you missed, but it looks like it was the last thing that you were saying at my funeral.

00:13:58:06 - 00:14:25:21

Unknown

No, no, please. I think there was a simple way of saying that I had four lives. The first lie was in science and academia. The second lie was in Armenian diplomacy. And later I was prime minister. And this transition happened because of, acts of God. I mean, you became independent. I was in Cambridge and, London School of Mathematics.

00:14:25:23 - 00:14:55:05

Unknown

The president asked me, can you open an embassy? He was academic, our first president. One wanted a Petrosian. I said, okay, I try. I did it in two months. And how do you do that? How do you open the embassy? You Armenians, they're everywhere. I think in two months. Where the building the the budget, everything was up. And then he called and said, can you open an embassy in Paris?

00:14:55:07 - 00:15:21:12

Unknown

So okay, then in Brussels and in Berlin, eventually, instead of saying, thank you, Amen. You made me ambassador. So initially I thought I can be simultaneously at the same time. I can be, scientist professor at the Cambridge University and so on and be an ambassador. No way. So I ended up diplomatic life and ended up being prime minister.

00:15:21:12 - 00:15:54:14

Unknown

Then it was another act of God. Well, I can say now, in 1997, I had cancer and I had to retire, because when you do that, what that, sort of thing happens to you as a politician. There are always conspiracy theories. People have imagination of that. They don't take that someone can be. Although I had a vision and that vision was very simple for Armenia, if I can make it clear, Armenia should become a country, small state of a global nation.

00:15:54:16 - 00:16:34:16

Unknown

I think engaging the whole diaspora in the future of the country, small state, global nation. And I will explain your why. So that was my, second life. Then I had the third one. Because of Act of God, I was ill, I had to go to hospital, and then I became a businessman. Had also my, my center, where I was the director at Cambridge University Eurasia House that were looking at politics, economic development of countries of Eastern Europe, former Soviet Union after China, Eurasia.

00:16:34:17 - 00:17:16:00

Unknown

I enjoyed that. I even enjoyed, being in business and making money. But because of my first love, the way I was born, I got a bit tired of this. So I said, maybe it's the time for me to go back again, finish what was cut, because the act of God. And when unexpectedly, in 2007, I was offered to become president of, Armenia with the new constitution, which was which had made Armenia a parliamentary republic, which I was not happy.

00:17:16:02 - 00:17:45:02

Unknown

Parliamentary democracy is a very complex and complicated thing. And our constitution, mostly written by, colleagues and advisors from Germany, was not taking into account that Armenians are not Germans. They're a bit different. And I think it takes time for you to get specific values of democracy. And so so I went back and that was my fourth life.

00:17:45:02 - 00:18:09:21

Unknown

So Eric, fourth life. Now I'm living the my fifth life and I'm a beginner. I'm trying to find a what is my fifth life. And one of the things I, I've, I found that I never thought that I could write books. Well, I wrote books and articles on theoretical physics and mathematics. That was easy. But then I was encouraged by two people and speaking to you.

00:18:09:21 - 00:18:37:06

Unknown

I would like to remember their names, two very prominent, very famous people that had also, huge impact on on my thinking as well. So first one was Henry Kissinger. Henry Kissinger and I met years ago, early 90s, but I became a member of New York Institute of East-West Institute, and he was honorary member of the can.

00:18:37:08 - 00:18:52:21

Unknown

Can somebody close that? Because it's blowing on my head. Otherwise I have to wear a hat. I don't like air conditioning. And I don't think it's healthy.

00:18:52:23 - 00:19:33:10

Unknown

What's our, What's the normal temperature of our body? Where is that? Chancellor? I said 37.6 30s. 6.6 is centigrade. It's around 90 something in, Fahrenheit. Okay, so why on Earth when my my body's normal temperature is 36.6? I want to stay in a room where the temperature is 20 and my body has to struggle, basically push a lot of energy to balance my internal temperature with the external one.

00:19:33:12 - 00:20:00:15

Unknown

And this is unhealthy. I think it's a habit. Okay. I was in the Gulf before coming here, Chancellor, and it was, in Saudi and it was in Qatar. It was 40 something degrees and every room was with air conditioned. I had this simple question. I was living there 50 years ago, 100 years at a hotel, used to live.

00:20:00:21 - 00:20:36:13

Unknown

There wasn't no air conditioning. Their body was adapting to that temperature. And there were healthier. So please switch it off. But, Yeah. So two individuals, Henry Kissinger, Sam, we met, in 97. We became friends and we were meeting regularly in New York, and we had this tradition having breakfast together at the Palace Hotel. And I learned a lot from Harry because he was very pragmatic, very deep, very smart.

00:20:36:15 - 00:21:11:01

Unknown

And he was someone that was representing, representing what I believed in all my life, that you have to live every day to learn something new. You stop learning. You die, not physically as a human being, you die. And I do remember years ago, Financial Times had a, interview with me, one page, and they put the title to the day that you stop learning, you die.

00:21:11:03 - 00:21:42:17

Unknown

And he was exactly the example of learning every day. He was 100 years old. I was asked by was also a journal to write an article about him. And it was great honor because Henry told them, ask Amen. And I wrote what I have learned from Henry Kissinger, and it was very successful article. Then he was 100 years old, and he came through from from New York to London to celebrate his 100th year anniversary with a lot of friends.

00:21:42:17 - 00:22:13:09

Unknown

And I was invited. I was the baby, among others. Okay, you can imagine who was there. And then he told me, Amen. Are you going to write? Because he encouraged me to write about the small states. And also the second thing years ago, because I'm a physicist, I used to teach quantum mechanics, quantum physics, theoretical astrophysics, and I always was fascinated with the fact that this nature is unified.

00:22:13:11 - 00:22:24:09

Unknown

If you look at the behavior of elementary particles, mechanics, quantum mechanics of that, and then you compare it with social behavior.

00:22:24:11 - 00:22:53:23

Unknown

I was finding a lot of similarities and I was trying with that. We are a part of this nature. The laws that are governing particles and the laws that are governing humans, they should not be very different. So I started some 15 more years ago working on that, and I named it Quantum World and Quantum Politics. And there were several people that I was discussing, and Henry was one of them.

00:22:54:00 - 00:23:27:17

Unknown

This is the great guy of classical diplomacy, like Isaac Newton in classical mechanics, Henry Kissinger, classical diplomacy. So having a new idea and discussing with him, especially about quantum politics. And we were spending hours and hours discussing this, this issue with him. And he was next time coming with new a lot of questions. So he was trying to learn when he was 100 years old, being Henry Kissinger.

00:23:27:19 - 00:23:55:15

Unknown

And when I wrote the, the, the, the book about small states, he asked me, send me the manuscript. I thought Henry Kissinger, 100 years old, is going to sit and read 300 pages of a manuscript of Armin Sarkissian. But I sent to him. Then he called me and said, what is the last day of the, publication?

00:23:55:15 - 00:24:20:01

Unknown

I said this in September of this fine. That day, the last day I got his opinion written, Henry Kissinger, 100 years old, read it, and I used one sentence as a blurb. I mean, this shows that you live a life, a full life, until the last day when you are 100 and you are Henry Kissinger. You try to learn something.

00:24:20:03 - 00:24:43:13

Unknown

And the second person is someone that I have great respect is was John II from Harvard, from Kennedy. And Joe was again good friend and until the last days of his life, because we were in communication, he was supposed to come to my conference in London called Advanced Tomorrow. Atom. It's about health, well-being and longevity in the future.

00:24:43:15 - 00:25:12:05

Unknown

And our first panel was Geopolitics and Health. And with Joe, we were and we had this, discussions because he is the creator of very famous principles and ideas, which is the soft power and the hard power. And I introduced in my quantum politics was another one which is called Smart Power. And we were trying I was the person that I had to explain this was Joe.

00:25:12:07 - 00:25:34:00

Unknown

He was he was the creator of soft power and hard power. And it took a lot of discussions and so which were very useful for me, eventually said something that I really enjoyed it and understood that he is taking that seriously. He called me when he was in Japan before dying and said, Amen. Now I understand what is smart power.

00:25:34:00 - 00:26:09:15

Unknown

I said what you saw. I read the book about elementary particles and quantum mechanics, and there's this thing called a Higgs boson. You need the Higgs boson in order to put together elementary particles. So probably smart power is the Sarkisian boson to put together, smart and, and hard powers. You really need that. And it's clear that when you, look at at small states being small, it's vulnerable.

00:26:09:17 - 00:26:35:03

Unknown

Being small is difficult. But in this new quantum world, what we see is that the world has changed and even the small states of this world that we're small still 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago, 100 years ago, there were always small states. You go back 200 years, there were around 200 small states, but they were always under the umbrella of a big one.

00:26:35:05 - 00:27:10:21

Unknown

France had a lot of Germans have from Prussia, Russian Empire and others. But now it's different. What? I don't know why it's different. Because just simple statistics. You look at the statistics from economists or the World Economic Forum or anywhere. Which countries are the most are the top countries in the world in innovation, ten countries, two United States, the United Kingdom, the other eight are small states.

00:27:10:23 - 00:27:54:09

Unknown

Small states like Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg, Israel, Singapore with Singapore universities fantastic and so so what? What are the top ten countries in the world that are leading in AI? In e-government? New methods of government. All ten are small states and number one is a very tiny state called Estonia, not big. You look at GDP, not overall GDP, but per capita top ten.

00:27:54:11 - 00:28:25:18

Unknown

Not United States, not Britain, not France, not Germany, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Singapore and so on. So small states are becoming more and more important on all on aspects. On all aspects. I mean, you hear about them every day. Who knew 50 years ago. What is Qatar?

00:28:25:20 - 00:29:02:06

Unknown

All negotiations on peace were happening in Geneva. They're happening in Doha now. 350,000 people. Third, fourth, reserves of gas. But there is one word that the book is called. My book is called The Club of Small States. But it should have been the club of small and smart states because they are smart. There's another country that has the same amount of gas as many start.

00:29:02:11 - 00:29:29:14

Unknown

It's not even close to Qatar having oil and gas doesn't mean anything. And in the book I am examining what are the sources of success for small states? How can you be successful if you are small? You can be successful because in your DNA there is something which is called resistance in your DNA. There's something which is called survival.

00:29:29:16 - 00:30:00:14

Unknown

A lot of small states have to, to fight, to survive. And if you are smart, you will find the way of making your natural resource a great advantage and make that natural, a natural resource or source, the resource or the engine of your success for different countries is different. What is the natural?

00:30:00:16 - 00:30:45:23

Unknown

Source of or natural wealth of Armenia? In the case of Saudi, it's oil. In the case of Emirates is oil. And they are very smart because several tribes came together under strong leadership of Sheikh Zayed, created something stable, predictable, a country that is investing in in the future in the world. The first university of Artificial intelligence was created where the United States, not in UK, no, in Abu Dhabi, in Masdar City.

00:30:46:01 - 00:31:24:11

Unknown

And the guy who is running that university is a fantastic guy. Professor Eric Zink, American Chinese. That's the world. If you are a small state, can be can you be militarily powerful? Of course you can. Future wars. How do you win the future war? But the number of soldiers? No, but the number of drones with artificial intelligence. You are a small state with 1 million drones, which you can afford.

00:31:24:13 - 00:31:27:23

Unknown

Yeah, you can have a huge army.

00:31:28:01 - 00:32:00:09

Unknown

The world has changed. Small smart states are there. They are going to make a lot of change for this world. And I'm lobbying that the small smart states have to come together to create a new organization as 21 as there should be G20 only representing big, powerful states. There are small, powerful smart states, which are run much more smarter than the big ones.

00:32:00:11 - 00:32:33:09

Unknown

It's a huge challenge to run, to survive a small state. It needs visionary leadership, like in Singapore. Like one. You three communities hated each other. We're fighting all the time Hindu, Muslim and Chinese. One guy with a vision with the strength of a pious power brought them together, created the country called Singapore, one of the most successful states in the world.

00:32:33:11 - 00:33:10:08

Unknown

The country that is today also bridge between the West and China, the West and Far East. Ireland. What is the natural resource of Ireland? The Irish people. Half of the US presidents have Irish descent and some of them helped Ireland a lot. Smart policies, smart tax policies, smart investment policies. A small Ireland has become, which was sort of a colony of Britain for a century.

00:33:10:08 - 00:33:47:15

Unknown

It has become a very successful state. Okay. What is the source of success of United Arab Emirates? It's oil, but smart oil or the oil for smart people? United Arab Emirates has a national space agency. They have sent a satellite to Mars, and it's run by a PhD. A lady with a PhD lady Sarah, in United Arab Emirates ahead of the time.

00:33:47:17 - 00:34:19:15

Unknown

You go to Qatar, you will be amazed. Then your leadership in Saudi, Saudi Arabia, what is a state with oil potential of this size? But for centuries their political impact was this much. Now, with the new leadership, this political impact will start growing. So it's all about are you smart or not? Armenian nation? Well, what's our national natural resource?

00:34:19:19 - 00:34:49:09

Unknown

It's not oil. Armenia has, Armenia as a state has some minerals, some gold, some molybdenum and molybdenum and so on and so. But the real natural natural resource of Armenia and Armenians are people. And there's one way that we can be successful with the model of small state, with global nation and every Armenian from abroad, from diaspora, should be a part of that.

00:34:49:11 - 00:35:17:21

Unknown

That's the only way that we can be successful, should be proud, should be citizen, should be contributing, should be keeping his moneys in Armenian banks, getting tax advantages or double taxation treaty with United States and so on and so forth. Then we can be very, very successful and we have to be smart to survive in the environment, the political environment that the that we live.

00:35:17:23 - 00:35:48:04

Unknown

There is no way that Armenia can be successful if we don't have good relations with the neighbors, be that in the North or the South. We have to find a way of doing that. There is no way that Armenia can afford itself not to have good relations with the Gulf. There is no way that Armenia can afford not having very deep good relations with United Nations, United States and Europe and Russia.

00:35:48:06 - 00:36:19:20

Unknown

Because if you are a small state, the challenge is survival. Somebody has to tell me how much time I have. I was professor at university. I can speak forever, so just tell me when. Sorry. Five minutes, 10:00. Sorry. 5 or 10. Whatever. Okay, fine. Well, so what do you want me to talk about? I think it's it's very important.

00:36:19:22 - 00:36:45:10

Unknown

The book that I wrote about small states. It's not about Armenia. There are nine states there that are successful that I examined. They're all different. Some of them are monarchies, the others are democracies. I was looking at why a country like Botswana is successful. I was not interested in human rights in that, state or democracy or not.

00:36:45:10 - 00:37:11:23

Unknown

No, because they are all different. But the sources of their success, they have similarities. So you can model it, or you can have a formula of a success of a small state. Of course, the 10th state is Armenia. Well, I had to write about Anaya. I don't consider that Armenia is a successful state, but anybody reading that book would have told, you think you are smart?

00:37:12:00 - 00:37:37:03

Unknown

Why? You are smart. But you were a president of Armenia and you didn't make Armenia successful. There are reasons for that. It's not about meal. It's not about only me. I had my mistakes and I had my successes, but it's about our nation. So in order to make again Armenia a successful one, to understand why we were not successful.

00:37:37:05 - 00:37:58:19

Unknown

This is a country that won the the war against, Armenians, won the war for Karabakh early 90s. And we lost the war in 2020. Why? What was wrong? In two words, we were not smart.

00:37:58:21 - 00:38:02:13

Unknown

I'm simplifying it.

00:38:02:15 - 00:38:29:16

Unknown

I'm always careful with this. Two words and one word story. There's a famous geopolitical one, which is not a joke, which is a reality because years ago, in 1994, I was asked by President Petrosian to go to Dublin. I was ambassador in UK and also in Dublin because President Yeltsin, I think, was traveling to Europe. He came to to Dublin.

00:38:29:16 - 00:38:59:00

Unknown

That's a very famous story. When he was not coming out from his airplane for an hour and journalists were standing outside waiting for him. The reality was, they say he was happily after having a bit of vodka. When he came out, he was asked the question and the question was, Mr. President, can you describe the state of Russian economy in one word?

00:38:59:02 - 00:39:19:21

Unknown

And that translated to him. And he said, good, okay. In one word, good said, no, no, no. Mr. President, in a couple of words, the translation was in two words wrong. Translation a couple of two. I said in two words. Not good.

00:39:19:23 - 00:39:54:18

Unknown

So very careful to give simplified formulas for any country, any situation. If they show. But one has to be also reasonable. So with this words, let me thank again, Mr. Chancellor. Let me thank the center. And it's a great privilege for me to speak here, because I know even my good friend John, I spoke here at the center and the names that you said, it's great privilege for me.

00:39:54:20 - 00:40:16:00

Unknown

And I take that as a small gift from you guys, Chancellor, you and Eric to my humble personality. And I will try to make sure that you will be proud of me in the future. Not today.

00:40:17:01 - 00:40:38:20

Unknown

Well, thank you so much for coming out. And just to note, John, I gave this exact lecture, I think four, maybe five years ago. I can't remember how many years ago. So I want to ask you about small states. I want to talk about your next book. One of the things I really liked about your book was that you identified something that I think a lot of people don't realize.

00:40:38:22 - 00:41:05:01

Unknown

I like to tell my students that there are about 200 states in the world, and the median is about the size of LA county. So we're 10 million. We would be an above average state in population. And of course, in economics, well above average. People don't appreciate that because we tend to think about the bigger state. So I thought that was an interesting, feature of your work.

00:41:05:03 - 00:41:30:14

Unknown

So let me ask you first about the the conditions that you mentioned. So a lot of people have argued that small states have done well because over the last 75 years, let's say since the end of World War two, relatively peaceful world that's allowed small states to thrive. Now, maybe we're entering a more aggressive period. We see invasions of Ukraine by Russia.

00:41:30:16 - 00:41:52:07

Unknown

We see war in Africa in the middle East, etc.. Do you think those conditions that you identified will still hold going forward, or is it a time when we should expect small states to be more vulnerable, maybe gobbled up by their bigger neighbors? You know, I think small states will you will they are always, vulnerable.

00:41:52:09 - 00:42:26:05

Unknown

And that's why, you know, it's like in nature, in our body, when we become how do we become strong? We train ourselves to do exercise. What does exercise means? We put our body under stress, and then our body reacts to that stress. And it makes our more stronger, greater resilience and so on. And so forth. So when you are under pressure of losing something or time, that's sometimes bad, but it's also good because it strengthens your immunity.

00:42:26:05 - 00:42:52:15

Unknown

Small states have stronger immunity than the big ones, I think small and the big states, we're living in the same environment, in the same world, and I don't want to discuss the failures of small states, but you look at their successes. As I told you, there are nine of them. I can easily give you 20 of them. And that's the number that I would like to have.

00:42:52:16 - 00:43:18:15

Unknown

Small, successful states is 20, and they will be also an example for the others to join the club. It's not it should not be an organization. This is not an alliance, military or economic alliance. One is in Singapore, the other one is in Botswana. The third one is in Rwanda. Maybe because they are also successful state. Other controversial in many ways.

00:43:18:17 - 00:43:58:04

Unknown

The other one is in Luxembourg, but from an economic point of view they are very successful. But the other one let's compare with Europeans is big ones. Germany. Germany was living in the same world, in the same conditions as the others and looked very successful. What happened? While you all know that, I think he feels the thing about Germany today, people will think and will discuss the failures, the economic difficulties, political difficulties, the rise of the far right in Germany.

00:43:58:06 - 00:44:38:05

Unknown

Why? Because they were not smart. And I can give you a couple of examples of that. The core of German industry were a couple of factors. One of them was cheap Russian gas and fun, cheap Russian gas. A country like Germany could have easily created created an alternative to Russian gas, spend a couple of billion euros, build terminals in Hamburg and buy liquid gas from Qatar.

00:44:38:05 - 00:45:04:21

Unknown

From memories from United States, from anywhere. One ad this industry was created by Japan and Korea with the goal why? Why you are not doing that? Why you are used to the cheap one and thinking that it will be forever. I asked this question to Angela merkel. Can I say something about that? Because. So she was your student.

00:45:05:03 - 00:45:37:14

Unknown

You told me today. Yeah. Well, seen in a form that, back in 1980s, before traveling to Cambridge, which was another act of God and working there for two years. I used to go to East Germany, and I used to work with the in the, in an institute of very famous, which is called the Albert Einstein Memorial Institute in Potsdam, and then giving lectures at the Dresden, Leipzig and Humboldt University in Berlin.

00:45:37:16 - 00:46:06:07

Unknown

And she was at that time a PhD student, doing her PhD in quantum chemistry. And she used to come to my lectures with quantum mechanics. And years later I met her together with Chancellor Kohl, when Chancellor introduced me to young Angelica merkel, new Minister of Nuclear Safety and Environment. And the first thing she told me said that you remember me, professor?

00:46:06:09 - 00:46:44:23

Unknown

Well, I didn't. But since then, we became friends that we we could we could, talk to each other. The thing is, the relations were established under Chancellor Schroeder and the committee that was looking at, the tariffs and, and where you buy gas was the ministers of Chancellor Schroeder. I just want to remind you that Chancellor Schroeder later became the chairman of Nord Stream, the gas pipeline that was running from Russia to Germany via Baltic Sea.

00:46:45:01 - 00:47:17:18

Unknown

I don't have any comments, but the Angela merkel Germany was leading country in the world was Siemens Energy in nuclear energy, and she was a physicist, chemist. Physicists said she knew that nuclear power plants are not dangerous. The disasters that we had, Chernobyl, Fukushima, they were disasters because there were human errors, not the technology in Fukushima. Why on earth having, you know that there you huge waves coming.

00:47:17:20 - 00:47:45:01

Unknown

You put the nuclear power plant on the beach, you put a big fart two kilometers. There would be no Fukushima disaster. In the case of Chernobyl, it was very simple because this was Soviet Union and nuclear power plants. They didn't had training facilities. So Soviet engineers were trained on actually working nuclear power plant in order to work there.

00:47:45:03 - 00:47:59:16

Unknown

They were switching over the security systems one, 2 or 3, 13 of them. You you switch off, then you start playing with the thing. It gets out of hand there. You get your nobody.

00:47:59:18 - 00:48:27:10

Unknown

Nuclear power plants, nuclear energy. In order to get to the new world where it's green, we get energy from sun, from wind and all of that. That's fantastic. They are countries that are doing that. If you take Norway today, Norway is getting one and a one and a half times more energy than there needs are from hydro and wind.

00:48:27:12 - 00:48:56:01

Unknown

All oil that Norway has, they are selling and the money goes into state fund, which is one of the biggest in the world. And they invest everywhere, including in California. They make a lot of money. Smart. They could have done something else. But there are smart. In Germany, Angela merkel decided, under the pressure from the Greens to basically close the nuclear power plants and the whole industry.

00:48:56:03 - 00:49:24:01

Unknown

I mean, Germans were number one in the world in building and running the nuclear power plants. It doesn't exist now. She decided that we have to develop our, sort of a green agenda, which is fine. But how do you do that? Do it reasonably. Let's go to electric cars. Germany was always famous with their cars. German engineering, their genius.

00:49:24:03 - 00:50:03:09

Unknown

Mercedes Benz. They took over Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Volkswagen. The car is, is engineering art. You look at the engine and everything. What is the electric car now? It's an iPad made where? China. It's an, battery made way. China rails, four wheels. Chinese companies are shareholders of Michelin, Pirelli and all of that stuff. The other things is the body is plastic.

00:50:03:11 - 00:50:38:09

Unknown

There is no engineering there. It's an electric car. You drive an iPad. That's why Volkswagen today has huge difficulties. Find the air in the city, becomes clean, fine. But do you know how dangerous is your, battery? Lithium. What can you do? Anything. Can you refine this battery? You are running 200 miles on this battery. Tomorrow there will be another battery for 500.

00:50:38:10 - 00:51:07:06

Unknown

You have to throw that old one, the car and the battery together. Why don't we think about the future before jumping and doing things? Yeah, the the air in London. Paris is cleaner. So what are we going to do with the mountains of old batteries, with lithium, which is a poison. I think we have to plan our future.

00:51:07:08 - 00:51:38:15

Unknown

Tell us about the new book. So you mentioned quantum politics. I know you told me you have it coming out this fall, that it's somehow marrying your understanding of quantum physics and your understanding of politics. How do they fit together? Well, I told that for years I had something inside me that was I was around each time when I saw some political event, social thing, human behavior of people in big numbers.

00:51:38:17 - 00:52:08:01

Unknown

That was reminding me some behaviors of particles or statistical physics and so on and so forth. And I couldn't help myself why this is happening? Then I started thinking that there must be a lot of common things, because we are still a part of this nature and we behave even if we are individuals. We have our power. Well, our decision making.

00:52:08:01 - 00:52:38:01

Unknown

But when the number is 1 million of us, we will start behaving like a body, okay? And there are rules that are running these bodies. And with the time our human behavior becomes more and more quantum quantum in the sense that it's not classical, this world, the way it's run politically, economically is not the same as that, like 30 years ago, is different.

00:52:38:03 - 00:53:09:00

Unknown

The way we run, the way you order food, 30 years ago, 30 years ago, nobody will believe that. We will have a video conference live with Australia. We had. Or a small country like a United Arab Emirates will send a satellite to Mars. We have it. Our basic values and understandings and believes ideologies are changing with the time.

00:53:09:02 - 00:53:35:11

Unknown

We don't want to believe in that. We think and we're trying to find comfort of stability. What do you want to find? Predictable world. Okay, that's in our mind. Everybody's. When I was buying a house, I was thinking I should buy another house near nearby because my son will live with me.

00:53:35:13 - 00:54:03:20

Unknown

A lot of elderly people love the young girls. Young boys and girls are silent. Nobody lives in this world because everybody wants to be independent. Free travel is on. I have two sons. There are all over the world and the hope that they will live nearby. To me it's a dream. I love that. I think in our culture of Armenian family is very important.

00:54:03:22 - 00:54:31:01

Unknown

We come together and so on. But the world is different, okay, the way we run business. Okay. Do I have to travel to run business? You could have had had me also here on zoom. Well, I would not enjoy because while speaking on zoom, I cannot see your faces and smiles. And yes, that's sort of encourages me. I'm saying something either smart or stupid.

00:54:31:01 - 00:54:58:05

Unknown

I can I can judge from your your faces. That's a trick that, sort of a trend. Professor knows, because when you have 150 students, then you are teaching them theoretical physics. Not about Hollywood or about acting, about physics. You have to keep them two times, 45 minutes, their attention to you. So you have to to be an actor, a Shakespearean one.

00:54:58:07 - 00:55:30:07

Unknown

45 minutes they listen to you. Maybe something exciting about how to understand physics, how to ask questions, what's difficult. So this is better than with zoom. But you can run your business with a zoom. The world is different, and in the West people are becoming more and more individual, more and more lonely. In the United Kingdom, the statistic is statistics is there.

00:55:30:09 - 00:55:59:14

Unknown

And this came from our conference on atom on health and Well-Being this year. Last year in November, the Science Museum grew and we are top specialists and so on by Chief Medical Officer of UK. Huge number, huge number of young girls, trying to have us to, to to do suicide because there is, there is a conflict.

00:55:59:15 - 00:56:26:00

Unknown

All of us here we are two. The one we are not one. Each of us is our minds, our question. And there's Amen. So using virtual on the web, on Facebook or on Instagram and everywhere. And it doesn't mean that necessarily that are the same. Sometimes the virtual is much better than the normal one, sometimes the other way around.

00:56:26:00 - 00:56:57:12

Unknown

Okay. But if you are a young girl unsafe you are entering. You want to be like Kim Kardashian. In London, your family doesn't have money and you are not as smart as Kim because she is smart. The way she runs her business, they all make themselves are like beautiful photos. And then. Then there is a conflict with the real life and the virtual life.

00:56:57:14 - 00:57:31:22

Unknown

It's an amazing it's a fact. Even at universities. I was speaking to. Manuel Mooney is the one of the best universities in Spain. They have certain percentage of their students with psychological problems, loneliness, absence of family relations, knowing each other when it's difficult, there's someone that will help you. You will share with this whole me the thing that when you have a problem, you go to what consultant or what psychological?

00:57:32:00 - 00:58:04:12

Unknown

What is this good? What therapist? Therapist? I never understood this was the best therapist was my mum. So now my best therapist is my sister and my wife. My boys. I share with them. They are free. They say anything that they think about me and I can survive. I can share with them. Why should I go and someone tell my life story to someone my family knows my life story.

00:58:04:16 - 00:58:44:11

Unknown

My friends know my story. So the real life is with family and friends, but we are losing it. Values of democracy. How many times you vote for president of the United States? Once in four years or five years? Once. How many times do you vote for President of United States per day with this? For 14. In Facebook. And all politicians depend on this.

00:58:44:13 - 00:59:11:23

Unknown

A United Kingdom, they change several prime ministers with elections. No. Just don't. They didn't like that Prime Minister. So you can unite to get them. Boris Johnson was having beer during the covet. Well, I'm simplifying the story that what you huge attack on them on the face. This is this is changing democracy. This is changing the way politics is run.

00:59:12:01 - 00:59:45:23

Unknown

And I'm simplifying this because what we have lost also what is true and what is false. There is a notion that Oxford University post truth. What does that mean? Doesn't matter. What is the truth? I do something bad. But then I have 1000 boys and girls sitting and writing. Each of them has 50 virtual names and 1050 50,000 writing.

00:59:45:23 - 01:00:17:16

Unknown

In Facebook, the non truth becomes truth. So how do you run business? How do you run politics? Politicians can be destroyed not because they are doing something wrong, because if you have money, you can create an image or you can destroy an image. Welcome to the new quantum world. This is just a service. I told you why. Yes, I hope that you will buy the book.

01:00:17:18 - 01:00:47:11

Unknown

And the book is 400 pages. I can not tell all of that to you. Okay, one final question for me. And then I'm going to open it up to all of you. So we're sitting here behind the flags. Armenia US California, UCLA. What lessons would you offer for California as sometimes compared to a nation state, sometimes thought of where the fourth or fifth, fourth, biggest economy or fourth today?

01:00:47:13 - 01:01:21:20

Unknown

So were we a state? We would not be a small state. We would be quite big. But what sort of advice would you offer to us to navigate this world? Be smart and pragmatic. Your fourth or fifth doesn't matter. People are happy here. I live now in London. And what's happening of the last year, year and a half, all of the wealthy people, successful people, are living in London because of the changes in taxation and so on and so forth.

01:01:21:22 - 01:01:53:23

Unknown

Okay. Some people say it's just the way the wider world, the richer people have been. They should be taxed more and the others fund what's happening. London was the capital of the world, financial capital of the world, London city. It's not now. Banks have gone like a bank. HSBC Bank is leaving London. London okay. Because money is liquid.

01:01:53:23 - 01:02:24:19

Unknown

It moves so easy. If you're a multimillionaire or a billionaire, how much does it take you to move from London to Monaco? We went to Dubai. Now half of Dubai are British, the other half are Russians. And if the wealthy person lives in London, pays less tax. House. House of cards. You live there, your children go to school there.

01:02:24:19 - 01:03:05:05

Unknown

You pay all of that, then you leave there. You start thinking, why should I invest in this or that? And so on and so forth and so on. I think managing poor and rich is the challenge, because there are full people that deserve a good life. There are rich people that have to be fair. But to find the middle golden middle, I think I would say the my advice would be find the golden middle, because then you will be continuing being successful and people will be happy as well.

01:03:05:07 - 01:03:35:00

Unknown

Try to avoid populism. I was born in the country was the most popular, populist, not popular populous country in the world called Soviet Union. Because we were promised that we will all leaving Communist when we're told that we are all equal, when we're told that we own everything in Soviet Union. But there was some people that were more equal than the others.

01:03:35:02 - 01:04:18:22

Unknown

Politburo members of Communist Party right at the moment. And that system didn't work at all. It didn't have an industry. There were no. And the tradition continues until today. Russia is not producing famous cars, famous washing machines, dryers, but is producing famous tanks. That's the structure of the economy. Tanks, airplanes, fighters, not something good for people. So they import that from Turkey, from Europe, from China.

01:04:19:00 - 01:04:49:19

Unknown

But they produce tanks. Okay. So Soviet Union was speaking about equality. The moment it collapsed, the whole world wealth that everybody had, they found a fantastic way of distribution of that whole world area. And each Soviet citizen was given a voucher, and that voucher was a piece of your wealth from the wealth of 300 or 50 million of the biggest country in the world.

01:04:49:21 - 01:05:40:05

Unknown

So what happened? Whoever had the neighbor or a friend and there was some dollars, some cash, but this vouchers for peanuts. And then they privatized huge entities for nothing. But nothing. So try to avoid populism. But it doesn't work. The problem is that the moment Soviet Union collapsed and United States and there was one of the Cold War, the happiness and the hype was so big, so important, everybody in the West was saying, oh, that's it, Soviet Union gone, democracy and free market capitalism have won.

01:05:40:07 - 01:06:11:21

Unknown

We don't have any further problems. There was even a scientist called with the Japanese name, wrote that this is the has Fukuyama. I know the name. I don't want to pronounce that. Well, this is the end of the history. In fact, that was the beginning of the history of the new era. So it made everybody relaxed. If China becomes capitalism, then it will become democratic.

01:06:11:23 - 01:06:21:06

Unknown

If Russia becomes capitalist, it will become democratic.

01:06:21:08 - 01:06:30:15

Unknown

It was the beginning of the new era. And that era is called quantum era of the New World with.

01:06:30:15 - 01:06:59:19

Unknown

Phenomenal new technology. And the source of this technology is quantum physics. If not the fathers of quantum mechanics would know it and never have this. So quantum means not only that small is powerful individual power. With this. This also means that our power is based on quantum physics as well. There is more in the book, but you have to buy it.

01:06:59:20 - 01:07:19:16

Unknown

Okay, we'll save that. Okay. So questions. We like to start with a question from a student. So there students in the room have their hands up or whoever feels as a student. We have our mics ready to go. Let's go right over here.

01:07:19:18 - 01:07:46:20

Unknown

Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Ladies first. Okay. That's fine too. We'll go. Sorry to disappoint another lady. First and foremost, I'm year. I'm out of OCN. I'm a third year student here at UCLA, and I was really happy. Brought up the example of Singapore and of small states like Singapore elsewhere that essentially sacrifice democracy also brought South Korea.

01:07:46:22 - 01:08:08:20

Unknown

We, oftentimes we forget that South Korea used to be a lot more authoritarian than North Korea. I want to get your perspective on the fact that is sacrificing democracy worth it in regards to growing your state. We look at Singapore today. Yes. It's racy. Yes. It's rich. Yes, it has eastern nominal universities, but it was an authoritarian state for a long time.

01:08:08:21 - 01:08:27:10

Unknown

Seoul, South Korea. And currently we see El Salvador is essentially getting rid of its parliament under Bukele to put forth its nation. Would you say that this is an option for Armenia? And as you mentioned, you were opposed to the constitution of 2007 with it becoming a parliamentary democracy.

01:08:27:12 - 01:08:54:16

Unknown

So the question is, is this a democracy credible? No, no they don't. They are not connected to each other, because I can give you examples of a lot of small successful states that there are fantastic democracies. The same Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, they are all democracies. So the question is it's you cannot have a sort of a mold for everybody.

01:08:54:18 - 01:09:34:17

Unknown

Each of us have where we have our history, our culture, our identity. Okay. I was referring to the Armenian Constitution of 2015, which is a parliamentary constitution, and it was written mostly by German consultants helping Armenian lawyers fight, but with a forgotten one. Simple things. Armenians are not Germans. Okay. The same constitution will work very well as a democratic constitution in Germany, but it will not work in Armenia that has lived in the Soviet Union for 70 years.

01:09:34:19 - 01:10:03:07

Unknown

The mentality is different. It will not work in Georgia. It will not work because of the. To give you a a trivial example. Angela merkel, because we were referred to her, was my guest in Armenia. Well, we knew each other for years where we were friends. She came to visit president of Armenia. So we had a meeting, a lunch together, and then they started discussing what had finished.

01:10:03:12 - 01:10:31:00

Unknown

I said, okay, I will take you to the car. She was frightened, said, no, no, no. You are the president. I'm just the chancellor. Prime Minister. So? So what? I said no, no, you cannot. Because in parliamentary constitution, the president is higher. Is the head of the state? Okay. And the Prime Minister is elected. Comes and goes. And we had the we had this friendly fight.

01:10:31:06 - 01:11:05:06

Unknown

Should we have. Can I go down with her to Erekat or not? So I won because I was her former professor. But that shows the difference of mentality. You take a policeman on the street, a traffic police in one of the former Soviet republics that stops the car and just says, sir, that you have done something wrong. The sort of a usual outcome for years was what?

01:11:05:08 - 01:11:34:14

Unknown

Just bribe? Okay. Can you imagine that in London, on a street policeman stopping you and you can bribe the policeman? Nobody even thinks about it. So that shows the huge difference in culture. So when you are molding your country, you have to take in count. There are no formal sorts of cliches. When you do this, you will be successful.

01:11:34:14 - 01:12:05:15

Unknown

No. You have to go deep into the fabric of the nation. Remember that your history, culture, what sort of people you are okay including in California. Even if you are to understand California and Arizona and Massachusetts are different. I'm not speaking about smaller states like Armenia and so on. With the history of several thousands of years living 70 years in Soviet Union, when everybody thought that we owned everything.

01:12:05:17 - 01:12:27:21

Unknown

You're a producer. You're working at the bread factory in Soviet Union. Everybody, at the end of their term, we're taking ten breads home and the security is standing. We're saying it's normal because we own the factory. The salary is small. They were taking ten breads. They were selling one for their family, the other nine selling it to their neighbors.

01:12:27:22 - 01:12:54:05

Unknown

That was normal. It's in the mentality of people when you are trying to build up your state and to drive this dramatic change, you have to take into account the fabric of it. That was the genius of Lee Kuan Yew because he he was a part of that society, and he kept his his sort of devotion that till his last days.

01:12:54:07 - 01:13:19:18

Unknown

I had the privilege of meeting him twice. But when I was in Singapore, I went with his son to is the house that his father lived. The son was Prime minister, is one of the mothers most mothers houses that I've seen in my life over, president over. And the prime minister of a country. Just a simple two bedroom house.

01:13:19:20 - 01:14:02:06

Unknown

So you have to be knowing what you are and doing. And there is no model for everybody. And each nation has to find its leader, its model. Its way of introducing and developing or evolutionary coming to the most human values, like democracy in others. But the West went to Afghanistan. Were you successful? Telling Afghanis that their wives are equal to them?

01:14:02:08 - 01:14:27:08

Unknown

Okay. But in Saudi Arabia, I was in Riyadh. Ladies are driving less in jobs. And so evolution of the process also. The moment you start forcing it doesn't work. You have to take into account. So a long answer to your simple question. The answer is yes. No, no, it's not a dialog. You write me a letter. Okay. Next.

01:14:27:12 - 01:14:41:03

Unknown

I'm happy to hear your opinion, but if we are to start a dialog, then it will not finish right over here in the middle. Got you. Got it. Yes, doctor. Thank you. Excuse me.

01:14:41:05 - 01:15:06:11

Unknown

Thank you so much, President Sarkozy, for being here and for all the insights like this. I'm not suggesting. Sorry. And for the insights that you provided. I have a question about something you mentioned earlier. You mentioned how our mission is to keep good relations with neighbors from the North, the South, U.S., Europe, and everywhere. How should Armenia strategically position itself in today's world to start and maintain those relations in the long term?

01:15:06:11 - 01:15:30:10

Unknown

And how can Armenia use its quote unquote, oil, which you said were its people to, achieve that? I think, first of all, we have to start using that oil. We are not doing that. Our Constitution says that initial constitution was saying that in order to become president of Armenia, you have to live in Armenia ten years and have only Armenian Armenian passport.

01:15:30:12 - 01:16:07:19

Unknown

What do you think about your best? Guys are living outside Armenia. Even the first Republic. Today is the day of the first Republic of Independence. Day of First Republic of Armenia. In 1918. 28th of May. All of the leaders, most of the leaders of that republic and the further Soviet Armenia came from outside, from Saint Petersburg, from Moscow, from Vienna, from Tbilisi, some from even Constantinople, which Constantinople is some from, Paris and so on and so forth.

01:16:07:21 - 01:16:41:05

Unknown

Why? Because the so-called aristocracy, not the aristocrats royalties, but aristocracy in the meaning of Old Greek. The definition by Aristotle, those who are educated, smart, and so lived abroad. They didn't live in Armenia in 1920. They didn't. Even the first leaders of Soviet Armenia, they all came from outside. I think you have to invite them. How on earth?

01:16:41:07 - 01:17:09:13

Unknown

So today's Constitution says that you have to live six years in Armenia and have only Armenia. Who needs a leader that has not been challenged by this new world? Living outside has accumulated a lot of experience and made a lot of mistakes. A lot of successes. Is ready to lead. So you need a leader that was born in his village and lived all his life in the village.

01:17:09:13 - 01:17:44:13

Unknown

And you want to run a small state and a global nation. How do you do that? The name of successful Armenians abroad is huge. If you are not army, you will never even guess that these people are Armenian. In politics, in business, in entertainment, in sports. Everywhere. If we don't use that. Okay, I can give you examples. All compatriots know about our film is professor at MIT.

01:17:44:15 - 01:18:14:21

Unknown

Very smart guy. Has created what? Moderna. Everybody knows that. Was it a useful or not? I don't know the vaccination. I have my own opinion about vaccination. I had five vaccines and I got a very bad case in Covid. Because I was president, I, I had to lead people getting vaccines. So I had the, Pfizer. I had the Moderna.

01:18:14:23 - 01:18:49:04

Unknown

I even had Chinese. Then I was taken to hospital for ten days after all of that. But a guy is absolutely educated, smart, successful businessman, scientist. He can not be minister of science in Armenia because he had to leave every time. Give his Canadian passport. I gave him Armenian passport. Come and live in Armenia for four years, hoping that on the fifth he will become minister.

01:18:49:06 - 01:19:23:20

Unknown

The one of the best doctors in the world is Lord Darzi. A guy. He is Armenian family from Iraq. He is Lord. He is the guy that has created, keyhole surgery. Is leading huge Imperial College research. And so he cannot be Armenia's Minister of Health because he has to give up his British passport. Is lordship, come and live in a village in Armenia or in Yerevan, and hoping that on the fifth year he will become minister.

01:19:23:22 - 01:19:53:16

Unknown

He was Minister of Health of UK. He was advising US presidents, Chinese, Japanese government. He has built the biggest hospital in the world for ladies in Qatar. They have spent $7 billion there and he was leading them to do it. And that guy cannot be minister in Armenia because of our constitution. So how do we do that?

01:19:53:18 - 01:20:05:11

Unknown

Change the Constitution. Allow the Armenian power from the world to come and help Armenia? Sorry.

01:20:05:13 - 01:20:40:19

Unknown

Okay. A lot of hands. We only have a few minutes left, so it's going to be a quick question. Why? I cannot speak a couple of hours. I know you can, right here in the middle. Yes. Yeah. He's got it. Okay. Hello. I'm summer, I'm a first year from Singapore, and I wanted to ask about your thoughts on the ability of small states to influence on the global arena, and possibly even shape conditions that could be more favorable for small steps.

01:20:40:21 - 01:21:12:00

Unknown

Thank you. No, I think the small seeds are have huge impact on global affairs, politics, economy and many other things. Okay. They have huge impact today. It's is the thing is, people don't realize, in the United States, president of the United States was visiting the Gulf and he visited three countries. Two of them small states.

01:21:12:02 - 01:21:53:07

Unknown

President of United States in the Gulf, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, both of them small. United Arab Emirates is one of the biggest states in the world that is developing data management and data storage. I mean, kilometers of data storage. The third country was Saudi Arabia. It's not a small state, but you can consider that. So there's a small state because it has huge potential but small impact politically compared with Emirates or even compared with Qatar.

01:21:53:09 - 01:22:07:21

Unknown

They have huge impact on the global affairs. Positive, negative. It's such a different story. Look at the impact that Israel has on global affairs. Small state.

01:22:07:23 - 01:22:33:10

Unknown

Do you like it or you don't like? It's a different story. It's up to you. But can you say that these states are run by bigger ones? Can you say that Israel is run by United States? I will not agree with that. It's an independent, strong state on its own with huge military. Huge. It's a small state but has powerful military.

01:22:33:13 - 01:23:07:14

Unknown

And that's going to be in the future as well. Okay. Innovation, as I was telling you, done by small states, your own country, Singapore is a phenomenal country. Well, I spoke at the university, National University of Singapore, that is also our partner in Atom Institute, one of the best universities in the world. You go there, they are buying Nobel Prize scientists from America and UK and France, taking them to Singapore.

01:23:07:16 - 01:23:38:04

Unknown

Huge labs. Singapore is ahead of many and it's a tiny state. You don't even have a space to leave. There's no space to live in Singapore. But look at how organized it. But I will add something that you don't know. The first church in Singapore was built by Armenians. And that's street where the church is. Until today. It's called Armenian Street.

01:23:38:06 - 01:24:05:07

Unknown

The most famous hotel in Singapore is Raffles, and it was built by one of my predecessors, Sarkies Brothers, 160 years old. Now it's owned by whom? By Qatar. Welcome to the New World. Unfortunately, we're out of time. Please join me in thanking President Sarkisian.

01:25:15:01 - 01:27:32:06

Unknown

Thank you so much. Okay. That's it. Okay. Can you speak up? Otherwise I'll say something.