Areg Galstyan - Mediamax.am

Areg Galstyan
Areg Galstyan
PhD, regular contributor to The National Interest, Forbes, The Hill and The American Thinker
What does the “hunt” for Ruben Vardanyan suggest? The recent so-called “investigations” of Troika Dialog, the company previously owned by businessman, philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, have caused a hailstorm of public and expert discussions. The financial aspect of this case is irrelevant to me, contrary to the underlying political motives.
Again at the crossroads of history: how can we survive in the changing world? The recent global processes, namely, the dialogue between the leaders of the DPRK and South Korea, the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the "nuclear deal" with Iran, the transfer of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (you can find my material for Forbes Russia on the topic), the attempts of Germany and France to return foreign policy subjectness to Europe, Turkish and Israeli factors in the Middle East, and the victory of President Vladimir Putin with preservation of the policy of building a new Russian Empire suggest that the world is entering a zone of prolonged geopolitical turbulence. The roots of the current world political crisis go back to the late 80's and early 90's of the 20th century. The fall of the Soviet Union - the bearer of the socio-communist ideology and one of the guarantors of the Yalta-Potsdam system of world order - marked the end of the Cold War and the bipolar order in international affairs. On these ruins, a new system emerged that was based on the total global hegemony of the winning subject, the United States.
Armenia amid a geopolitical typhoon: What is the plan? The last two weeks’ events in world politics have indicated a new deterioration of relations between Russia and the West. The poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK has led to yet another diplomatic war. The United States has expelled 60 Russian diplomats and closed the consulate in Seattle, the European countries (including UK) have declared over 70 Russian citizens personas non grata.
Armenia and the changing world: indirect challenges and threats Over the past month, I had to write final articles for some international journals. It made me think much about the current state of the Armenian world and possible threats to Armenia on the eve of a big clash of the leading centers of power.
Armenians should become a transnational political nation How can small nations and countries survive in the struggle of the great powers?
How to transform a community into a diaspora? In Yerevan, a regular pan-Armenian forum was held, which is actively discussed in the expert community and general public. Some believe that such events are important since representatives of Armenia and Diaspora have an opportunity to discuss the pressing issues of the Armenian world. Others actively criticize the pan-Armenian meeting due to the lack of concrete and practical results. The third group is just satisfied with the idea that some well-known politicians, economists, businesspeople, athletes and artists of Armenian origin from all over the world participate in this forum. It is pointless to make any attempts to say who is right and who is wrong since each side is armed with itsown arguments. Within the framework of this article, I would like to consider one of the formulas for solving an important problem - the transformation of a community into a diaspora.
The Battle for Armenia Five months have passed since I returned to Armenia with a very specific goal – to promote the formation of political meanings that will help the current generation to solve tasks of a national character. The scientific and analytical center "The Armenian Interest" became the tool of our team, around which we seek to collect the Armenian and world intellectual capital. There is an understanding that the implementation of serious goals is always a long-lasting and phased process, taking into consideration the existing international experience and knowledge gained in different centers of power. Comprehension is the first level, on which I would like to focus within this analytical essay. There is no necessity to list the domestic difficulties that exist in the country because they are well known. It is important for me as an analyst to solve a more complicated task – to reveal the root causes of the fundamental issues and try to find appropriate solutions.
How will the sanctions against Russia affect Armenia? An absolute majority of the US Congress adopted a new package of sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. Studying the new bill to write an article for RBC, I thought about the consequences for Armenia.
America and Armenia: 25 years later This year, Armenia and the United Stated of America celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. For such a short historical period, many important political events took place.
Transferring "Armenian Centrism" to Yerevan While growing up, each person tries to find his or her place in the world. We choose many things in life relatively quickly and simply: favorite subjects at school, faculty at the university, sport, favorite cuisine, style of clothes, etc. However, we face serious obstacles while analyzing, considering and understanding our own essence. When I studied in the eighth grade, I began to take a serious interest in history, learning that in my family, there were four people with Ph.D. and one academician. Probably, I inspired myself that to study history is my destiny too. Perhaps, it was a protective mechanism, thanks to which the only ethnic Armenian in the classroom could be distracted from the complex interethnic relations in the late 90s - early 2000s. At such an early stage of my life, I understood (quite unconsciously) that I had to know ten times more to get a good mark, which was much easier for the others.
Trump, Iran, Karabakh and Armenian lobby Many high-ranking politicians and experts, who are close to the Kremlin, were confident that the victory of Republican Donald Trump would alter the nature of the US-Russian relations. According to Moscow, the new US President's foreign policy would be focused exclusively on resolving internal political problems as well as on paying much attention to the Chinese direction. Thus, following that logic, America would have to weaken its positions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Moreover, Russian experts actively promoted the thesis on the inevitability of the conflict between Washington and Brussels, which would lead to a split in NATO. Leading governmental media praised Trump, presenting him as a future partner in international affairs.
The three whales of Armenian soft power Trying to survive in our changing world over the past twenty years, many large and small countries have made certain attempts to adopt some foreign policy tools that were invented in the United States. The international community is most actively discussing the factor of "soft" or "smart" power, which has become an important element in maintaining, supporting and strengthening America's global leadership. The governments of Russia, China, India, Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as the authorities of the Gulf Monarchies have allocated multimillion-dollar funds to devise concepts of their national models of "soft" power. Some countries achieved certain success, others still suffer permanent failures. Many experts mistakenly believe that only wealthy states can afford the political pleasure of having "soft power". However, the practice shows that such rich countries as Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey were not able to achieve the desired results, while Ireland, Israel and Poland now top the ratings of the most successful states that are using "soft" power.
How to get out of the foreign policy turbulence? The beginning of the parliamentary elections in Armenia was marked by a number of noteworthy visits made by the representatives of Russian scientific, analytical and journalistic spheres. Thus, well-known journalists Dmitry Kiselev and Vladimir Solovyev arrived in Yerevan to take part in the regular meeting of the "Griboedov Club". During the press conference, which was attended by the representatives of various think tanks, newspapers and television, Russian journalists touched upon numerous economic and military-political aspects of Armenian-Russian relations? In general, the discussion turned out to be quite interesting. However, the most memorable episode was Vladimir Solovyev's monologue about the external political passivity of official Yerevan and failures of the Armenian diplomatic mission in Moscow. The second most important thesis was the one of Mr. Kiselev who said that while selling weapons to Azerbaijan, Russia received certain tools to control it. This thought, as it was supposed, caused another resonance in the Armenian public.
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