RE-ASSESSING ARMENIA’S SECURITY CHALLENGES: A RESPONSE TO THE PAPER “REGIONAL SECURITY DYNAMIC: ARMENIA” BY TATEVIK MKRTCHYAN AND HAYK KOCHARYAN

Abstract

The paper presented by Tatevik Mkrtchyan and Hayk Kocharyan outlines the main security challenges that Armenia is facing and analyzes the responses to those challenges, as envisaged by the security policies of the Armenian government. The authors offer a sound analysis of the documents that regulate government policies in the field of security, such as the National Security Strategy, the National Military Doctrine, etc. They have done a wonderful job analyzing these documents and their applications in practice, showing how the government strategies correspond with the realities on the ground. As I agree with most of the points made by the authors, I would rather focus on some of the aspects of the issues left out of the paper for the simple reason that all aspects of the problem of Armenia’s security simply cannot be covered within the limits of a single academic paper. For the same reason I do not claim to offer a detailed analysis of these issues myself, but rather I will try to draw the attention of the speakers and the audience to some issues, which should also become a subject of discussion.