A comparative analysis of Armenia and Georgia reveals both shared features and profound differences in how each has articulated its liminality and drawn agency from it. The two countries have undergone major and contrasting discursive shifts over time, resulting in an almost inverted rearticulation of their liminality. The evolving roles of the EU and Russia, along with those of other regional actors, have impacted these trajectories by supporting or constraining agency through dynamics of recognition. These relationships have been reconfigured over time, prompting shifts in how both states navigate their identity and foreign policy. Rather than being confined to binary alignments with either Russia or the EU, the possibility of a more autonomous in-between path emerges as a significant question. The analysis also reveals disruptions in Armenia’s and Georgia’s ontological security narratives—moments that have led either to creative adaptations or to more paralysing effects that limit agency. This highlights the distinction between the insecurity of the sovereign Self and that of its projected identity. Stabilising a new dominant discourse of the Self remains an ongoing challenge for both states, constraining their capacity to “go on”.