In an online webinar organized by the German ZOiS Caucasus Network, RSC Director Richard Giragosian offered a presentation entitled, “Armenia on the way to Europe?”
Abstract
Faced with a daunting set of diverse threats and challenges, Armenia struggles to reassert its independence through a difficult post-war degree of weakness and loss. Yet Armenia has adapted to these challenges through the adoption of an innovative strategy of “diversification,” seeking to broaden its security partners while bolstering its strategic significance. Despite this ambitious strategic readjustment, however, Armenia must still overcome a period of profound shifts in regional and global geopolitics.
Against that backdrop, it has been European engagement in Armenia that has been most significant in bolstering and backing Armenia’s post-war diversification strategy. Matched by Armenian engagement and interest in Europe, currently through the Armenia–EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, as well as the EU’s Eastern Partnership program, the EU has provided unprecedented support to Armenia, with the deployment of an EU Monitoring Mission and the provision of new security assistance. Yet given the unexpected degree of volatility in the US, Armenia’s “pivot to the West” has been increasingly defined and driven by Armenian-EU ties. Looking ahead, Europe is also seen as the destination and the determinant of Armenia’s future security and stability.