WATERTOWN — The Armenian Mirror-Spectator is happy to welcome Benyamin Poghosyan and Suren Sargsyan, two distinguished columnists from Yerevan, who have already begun writing regularly on various issues of Armenia’s international relations and political science in these pages.
Benyamin Poghosyan is the chairman of the Yerevan-based Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies. He was Vice President for Research – Head of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense Research University in Armenia from August 2016 to February 2019. He joined the Institute for National Strategic Studies (predecessor of NDRU) in March 2009 as a Research Fellow and was appointed as INSS Deputy Director for research in November 2010. In 2013 Dr. Poghosyan was a Distinguished Research Fellow at the US National Defense University College of International Security Affairs and is a graduate of the US State Department Study of the US Institutes for Scholars 2012 Program on US National Security Policy Making. He holds a candidate of science degree in history and is a graduate of the 2006 Tavitian Program on International Relations at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Suren Sargsyan is an expert on US foreign policy, researcher and author. He is a graduate of Yerevan State University, American University of Armenia and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Suren Sargsyan is a founder of the Armenian Center for American Studies, a research center based in Yerevan established in 2017. He teaches US foreign policy and Armenian foreign policy courses at Brusov State University in Yerevan. Throughout his career in public service, Sargsyan served in all three branches of government of Armenia, holding the positions of adviser to the Prime Minister of Armenia, adviser to the Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia as well as adviser to the chairman of the Constitutional Court. He spent 8 years working at the Office of the President of Armenia, under two different administrations. Sargsyan is a Rumsfeld fellow and PhD candidate in American studies. He is an author of the book Armenia and Bush Himself about US foreign policy towards Armenia under President George H. W. Bush. Currently he is working on his second book about Clinton administration policy towards Armenia.
