Politics

As modern conflict increasingly targets how societies think rather than what they control, Armenia faces growing exposure to cognitive warfare. Sossi Tatikyan explains the concept, maps its risks in Armenia’s post-war context, and outlines a resilience framework to strengthen cognitive security, public trust and democratic stability ahead of the 2026 elections and beyond.

A harrowing account of Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan, Gibran Caroline Boyce follows one family’s years-long fight for justice. As peace talks advance, it examines human rights abuses, legal battles and the unresolved fate of detainees left behind.

Armenia’s mining sector stands at a pivotal moment, as rising global demand for critical minerals draws U.S. and EU interest. Hovhannes Nazaretyan explores its economic weight, untapped potential, geopolitical significance and the environmental and governance challenges shaping its future.

Azerbaijan speaks the language of peace while steadily expanding and diversifying its military arsenal. As negotiations with Armenia inch forward, Hovhannes Nazaretyan examines Baku’s sustained rearmament, including its suppliers, capabilities and strategic intent, and what it reveals about the fragile balance between diplomacy and deterrence in the South Caucasus.

As Armenia moves away from decades of security dependence on Russia, it is building a network of partnerships across the West, Eurasia and Asia. Sossi Tatikyan explores the opportunities, and geopolitical risks, of Armenia’s emerging multi-alignment strategy in an increasingly fragmented world.

Syunik occupies a critical place in Armenia’s security and development calculus. The EU’s Resilient Syunik initiative represents one of the largest coordinated Western-funded regional programs in the country, combining infrastructure upgrades, economic support and governance reform.

J.D. Vance’s visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan signaled a deeper U.S. role in the South Caucasus, with new defense and nuclear agreements, AI cooperation and TRIPP connectivity. The parallel tracks pursued in both capitals raise important questions about balance, leverage and the future architecture of peace in the region. Sossi Tatikian explains.

Nationwide unrest and escalating repression in Iran are reshaping regional security dynamics, with growing risks of external escalation. For Armenia, the crisis heightens exposure to border instability, trade disruption, and diplomatic strain, testing Yerevan’s ability to balance relations amid a shifting deterrence landscape.

The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy signals a shift toward sovereignty-centered, transactional realism. Sossi Tatikyan explores how this new doctrine reshapes U.S. engagement in the South Caucasus and its implications for Armenia’s security, diplomacy, peace process with Azerbaijan, and partnership with Washington.

The security component of the Strategic Agenda incorporates Europe as an important part of Armenia’s developing security architecture, writes Nerses Kopalyan, where the confluence of hard power capacity and small-state resilience become integrated, at the institutional level, with European and Transatlantic standards.