Tag: Nerses Kopalyan

Armenia faces distinct security threats from Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Russia, with Russia posing the most complex and severe challenge through cyber operations. This month's security briefing explores the concept of subversion as a tenable risk-mitigation strategy against these threats.

The institutional mechanisms, economic arrangements, and social power networks that Catholicos Garegin II constructed and relied on are incompatible with Armenia’s democratic project and the values of the Church as a sacred institution, writes Nerses Kopalyan.

In order for Armenia to mitigate, anticipate, and deter Azerbaijan's threats and potential attacks, it must understand and qualify the mechanisms that define the Aliyev regime’s propensity for bellicosity, and gauge its “coercive credibility”.

In Armenia, establishing a Western pivot was crucial to achieve an independent foreign policy and enhance security capabilities, paving the way for diversification in foreign and security relations. This process involves pivoting first, diversifying, and only then adopting hedging strategies.

The latest survey by the International Republican Institute, conducted in December 2023, reveals the consolidation of public distrust in Russia, strong support for the Government’s pivot toward the West, and a growing sophistication in the Armenian public’s understanding of its complex security concerns.

Noting the instrumentalization of warfare as the dominant and preferred strategic tool of the Aliyev regime, a rationalist explanation of war is introduced in this month's security briefing to address the causal mechanisms shaping Aliyev’s incentives for being conflict-prone.

An institutional theory of security is necessary for Armenia so that it escapes institutional underdevelopment and the culture of inchoate security thinking inherited from the Soviet legacy, writes Nerses Kopalyan for the December 2023 security report.

Երևանը պետք է ուժեղացնի իր բանակցային հնարավորությունները՝ ներգրավվելով անհամաչափ ագրեսիվ սակարկությունների մեջ: Ներսես Կոպալյանի անդրադարձի ՁայնաԳիրը։

The region’s security arrangement remains in flux as Azerbaijan amplified its rhetorical aggression and engaged in expansive troop movements and build-up in border areas. Greater Western involvement has deepened the alliance between Azerbaijan and Russia. While Moscow and Baku have established a united front against the West’s presence in the region, Armenia has proceeded to reconfigure its strategic interests, advancing its democracy narrative, while aligning its preferences to the resolution of the conflict with the Western-led stabilization efforts.