Regional Studies Center (RSC)
Organizational Description
Since our founding as an independent think tank in 2012, the Regional Studies Center (RSC) has been conducting a wide range of strategic analysis and objective research, and implementing a number of educational and policy-related projects. As a leading think tank based in Armenia, the RSC conducts research and analysis and develops policy initiatives aimed at bolstering political and economic reform and conflict resolution in the broader South Caucasus region.
Moreover, as an independent think tank, the RSC is actively engaged in the public policy process and, over the longer term, seeks to serve as a catalyst for democratic reform and sustainable economic development through the empowerment of civil society and by contributing to the formulation of public policy through innovative and objective research, analysis and policy recommendations. Our research and project activities consist of five main program areas:
- Regional analyses and assessments of political, economic and security issues in the South Caucasus, but also including Iran, Russia and Turkey;
- National security and defense reform;
- Democratization and good governance;
- Economics and sustainable development;
- Educating and empowering youth as an “agent of change.”
Regional Studies Center (RSC)
60 Aram Street, #53, 3rd floor
0010 Yerevan, Armenia
Tel: (+374) 11 70 99 69
A CRITICAL COMMENTARY OF THE ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER
In a commentary for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), Regional Studies Center (RSC) Director Richard Giragosian offered a critical assessment of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Published on 16 November 2021, the article, entitled, “Armenian Prime Minister Under Threat,” noted that “the tactical flexibility and impressive self-confidence that fueled Pashinyan’s rise to power have become his biggest weaknesses.”
RSC REPORT: “ASSESSING ARMENIA’S COURT CRISIS”
- Details
- Parent Category: Publications
- Category: RSC Analysis
The attached is a 7-page “Assessment of Armenia’s Court Crisis,” with an analysis of the Armenian parliament’s recent adoption of legislation to reform and restructure the Constitutional Court, as well as notable concerns and analytical observations regarding the broader implications for legal and judicial reform in Armenia.
RSC ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPMENTS IN ARMENIAN POLITICS
- Details
- Parent Category: Publications
- Category: RSC Analysis
In a recent assessment of developments in Armenia, the RSC published an analysis on 15 June entitled, “No Rest or Respite for Armenian Politics,” focusing on the confrontation between the Armenian government and the notorious petty “oligarch,” Gagik Tsarukyan, and his opposition “Prosperous Armenia” Party.
ASSESSING ARMENIA’S GEOPOLITICAL CHALLENGES
RSC Director Richard Giragosian was the guest of the weekly Facebook podcast hosted by European Parliamentarians, former two-time Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and former Lithuanian Minister of Defense Rasa Jukneviciene. He presented a broad and sweeping overview of the Armenia’s accomplishments and achievements in democratic reform while also assessing the difficult geopolitical challenges facing Armenia, including dealing with Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran, the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) peace process, as well as the country’s strategic relations with Russia and the European Union (EU).
RSC COMMENTS ON ARMENIAN-GERMAN RELATIONS & ECHR RULING ON SAFAROV CASE
In the first segment of a two-part interview with Meline Petrosyan for 365news.am published on 28 May, RSC Director Richard Giragosian commented on Armenian-German relations and assessed German foreign policy and diplomacy related to the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict. In the second part of the interview, Giragosian focused on the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) recent ruling that determined that Azerbaijan violated a key European convention by pardoning, rewarding and glorifying an Azerbaijani army officer who brutally murdered an Armenian officer in a barbaric attack with an axe during a NATO course in Hungary in 2004. This ruling found that Azerbaijan’s actions amounted to the “approval” and “endorsement” of the “very serious, ethnically-biased crime” committed by the officer, Ramil Safarov.
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