Examining the Context

To strengthen and democratize its defense sector, Armenia needs to diversify access to armaments and advanced weapons systems and develop a comprehensive, well-structured and expert-driven procurement program. EVN Report’s Maria Titizian speaks with the author of “EVN Security Report” Dr. Nerses Kopalyan about the February 2024 security briefing.

For the January 2024 EVN Security Report, Dr. Nerses Kopalyan introduced a rationalist explanation of war to address the causal mechanisms shaping Aliyev’s incentives for being conflict-prone. He speaks with EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian about how rationalist models of war are applied to account for the decision-making and policy preferences of the Aliyev regime and why peace for the Azerbaijani president is deemed an “irrational” preference.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about the need for Armenia to have an institutional theory of security as chronic de-institutionalization and de-professionalization after independence eroded its capacity to develop a functional, institutionalized system of security.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about regional dynamics in November that demonstrated acute developments on track to produce unanticipated realignments, altering Armenia’s security environment and enhancing its security and foreign policy diversification.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about the objective of Armenia's Western pivot, which is neither ideational nor conceptually geopolitical but rather the need to rupture the entire logic of dependency and establish sustainable security independence for the Republic of Armenia.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about how the status quo established by the Russo-Azerbaijani tandem in Nagorno-Karabakh completely broke down after Baku, coordinating operations with Russian forces, launched a massive invasion, culminating in the collapse of the Artsakh Republic.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" who explains the madman theory, a strategy in coercive bargaining, where the perceived extremism of an actor is leveraged to achieve one-sided outcomes. In this context, Kopalyan explains how Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s bargaining posture operates off of the logic that if his terms are not met, he reserves the right to wage war, thus anchoring the threat of destruction to force acquiescence from Armenia and the international community.

As the security environment in Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) continues to be critical, Dr. Nerses Kopalyan (UNLV) speaks to EVN Report's Maria Titizian about the July 2023 Security Report and explains why any rearticulation of Armenia's new security architecture must integrate strategic intelligence.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly EVN Security Report, about the necessity of scenario and contingency planning to prepare courses of actions and outcomes to address unexpected situations and mitigate significant impact to Armenia due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and its effect upon Russia's domestic political order.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about implementing a mining-for-security strategy as part of Armenia's overall security architecture.

EVN Report’s Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series EVN Security Report. The security situation for April highlights the growing cleavage between Armenia and Russia because of Moscow's refusal to either enforce or impartially implement the terms of the November 9 tripartite statement that ended the 2020 Artsakh War.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with political scientist and international security expert Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about the security context for March 2023. The briefing, entitled "The Geopoliticization of Democracy and the Problem of Illiberal Peace" looks at the growing Russian-Azerbaijani axis, and why Armenia must choose a liberal peacebuilding process over an authoritarian and illiberal peace process.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with political scientist and international security expert Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about the security context for February 2023. The briefing, entitled "Resilience" argues that Armenia must not only restructure its security architecture, but also develop comprehensive resiliency capabilities. Kopalyan defines five governance characteristics vital to building or effecting resilience: state capacity, selective decentralization, institutional memory, political inclusivity and strength of civil society.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with political scientist and international security expert Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report" about the security context for January 2023. Kopalyan argues that taking into consideration the security situation and guided by a strategy of deterrence-by-denial, Armenia must develop a "porcupine doctrine" to deter Azerbaijan's objectives and the destabilizing designs of the Aliyev regime.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with political scientist and international security expert Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report". The security context in December showed that regardless of negotiations or the general contours of a potential peace treaty, actual and sustainable peace with the Aliyev Government will remain elusive. This month’s security report introduces the concept of ontological security.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with political scientist and international security expert Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report". The security context for the month of November demonstrated observable decline for Armenia as Azerbaijan intensified and amplified its hybrid warfare activities, attempting to neutralize Armenia’s growing attempts at the diplomatization of its deterrence capabilities. Dr. Kopalyan speaks extensively about the blocking of the Lachin Corridor, Artsakh's only lifeline with the rest of the world, by so-called Azerbaijani eco-activists and the shutting off of the natural gas supply to Artsakh that will undoubtedly lead to a humanitarian catastrophe for the 120,000-strong population.

EVN Report's Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with political scientist and international security expert Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of the monthly series "EVN Security Report". The security context for the month of October can be better understood as the changing configuration between Armenia's implementation of its diplomatization-of-security doctrine against Azerbaijan's multitiered hybrid warfare doctrine.

EVN Report’s Editor-in-Chief Maria Titizian speaks with Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, author of a new monthly series called EVN Security Report. The security briefing provides data-driven, in-depth analysis of Armenia’s precarious security situation following the 2020 Artsakh War.