Strengthening National Security: Institute for Security Analysis Launches Resilience Programs in Gyumri

These issues are felt and identified outside of the ISA as well. Hovhannes Gojabashyan, a student at the American University of Armenia (AUA) and CAS participant, said that after the 2020 war, 2023 offensive, and the loss of Artsakh, it’s hard to improve policy strategy within Armenia’s weakening security architecture.

“Armenia’s strength is that we still have Syunik, which is a major geographic obstacle for the Turkic world to be united. We should grasp it [tightly] because that would give us a hope to live here and simultaneously restore ourselves,” he said. “Armenia’s weaknesses are that we don’t have Artsakh anymore and we have a pro-Turkish and pro-Azerbaijani government, which is not helping our state. A lot of things are being done internally to destabilize our nation and weaken our army.”

Areg Khachatrian, an AUA Master’s graduate and CAS participant, also said that it is important to recognize the weaknesses of our current national security, and that in this age of digitization, Armenia needs to adapt.

“One of the crucial points of Armenian security that has to be developed more is the digital part of it and digital open source research, especially nowadays when everything is on the internet,” he said. “Using open source information to detect enemy positions and to analyze those things, helps us try to forecast what will happen on the frontline. It’s crucial. Especially since its independence, Armenia has been on the defensive and that’s the main issue due to our problems in the southern part of Armenia, specifically in Syunik and Vayots Dzor.”

Alen Galukyan, a junior ISA member and CAS organizer, said that it was valuable to gain outside perspective on how international scholars perceive both their own security, as well as Armenia’s. This perspective fosters new ideas in the next generation of security experts on how to reform current actions.

“It was very interesting to learn about the issues concerning the borders of Armenia, as well as foreign general concern regarding Armenia, because it shows that there is a lot that needs to be done,” he said. “But our curiosity levels and the people that have shown interest gives us hope. It shows our determination to invest in and protect our country and statehood.”

Vahag Gasparyan, an ISA Senior Researcher based in Switzerland and lead organizer of the Governance Seminar, said that his discussion topic with CAS participants merges Western theory with Armenian case studies, aiming to incite creative and analytical thinking.

“I’ve tried to introduce moral disengagement theory, which is well known in the West but unfortunately not so much in Armenia and Armenian society and academia,” he said. “I also linked moral disengagement theory with political manipulations, particularly within the local Armenian context, and tried to use examples for how theory could be practically used for political and social manipulations.”

Serena Hajjar Bakunts, editorial manager at AUA’s Office of Communications and CAS participant, was born and raised in Boston and moved to Armenia a couple years ago. She said that Armenian national security currently possesses a narrow mindset and that internal development and interests should be prioritized.

“A threat is the [Armenian] victim mentality,” she said. “As a small state we need to strategically position ourselves amongst neighbors and the world powers, but that doesn’t mean that we need to entirely outsource our security. We have the power to take steps ourselves and we need to start looking internally first.”

Gojabashyan said productive and honest communications is critical to the implementation of Armenian national security. Without it, Armenian independence and sovereignty will continue to face severe threats.

“If we do not tell the truth to the people that we should always speak about Artsakh and that we should always have the hope and perspective of going back, Armenia will always be weak, Armenia will always be involved in wars, and Armenia will not be able to recover fully,” he said. “And every time it will try to stand up, it will again be beaten. War is not over yet, and we need to stand up and fight again, whether it’s through diplomacy or in the mountains.”

(Bella Ishanyan is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst studying Political Science, Economics, and Information Technology. She is a junior analyst fellow at the Institute for Security Analysis.)