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Dr. MG HAYK KOTANJIAN OF ARMENIA NAMED MARSHAL CENTER GRADUATE
[04:01 pm] 13 June, 2008
Dr. MG Hayk Kotanjian of the Republic of Armenia is
Marshall Center Graduate of the Month for May 2008.
Dr. MG Kotanjian is the Commandant of the Institute
for National Strategic Studies of the Armenian
Ministry of Defense, and Advisor on Defense Security
Policy to the Minister of Defense.
Dr. MG Kotanjian attended Senior Executive Seminar
(SES) 1998-2 as a colonel, while Chief of the External
Relations and Military Cooperation Department of the
Ministry of Defense of Armenia.
After attending the Marshall Center, Dr. MG Kotanjian
was charged with establishing the first Armenian
Defense Office to the U.S. Department of Defense, and
he served as the first Defense, Army, Air Force and
Naval Attaché of the Republic of Armenia to the United
States of America from 1998 to 2002. Dr. MG Kotanjian
was decorated with the U.S. Legion of Merit for his
attaché service in Washington.
In 2003 he enrolled as a Counterterrorism Fellow at
the School for National Security Executive Education,
National Defense University, in Washington, D.C.,
graduating in 2004. During that time he also completed
the NATO Staff Officer Orientation Course. Earlier in
2001 he participated in the Defense Analysis Program
of the RAND Graduate School in Washington.
During his studies in Washington, Dr. MG Kotanjian
developed the concept to establish the first defense
and security think tank in the Armenian defense
system, which was later founded as the Drastamat
Kanayan Institute for National Strategic Studies of
the Armenian Ministry of Defense. Dr. MG Kotanjian was
appointed as the first Commandant of the institute. In
2006-2007 he was also appointed by decree of the
President of Armenia as the Secretary of the National
Security Strategy (NSS) Elaboration Interagency
Commission. In addition, Dr. MG Kotanjian was the
Academic Supervisor of the NSS Interagency Elaboration
Project.
Dr. MG Kotanjian participated in the Istanbul NATO
Summit in parallel with Armenia’s official application
to the NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan. His
monograph, -Developing Armenia’s National Security
Strategy within the Context of the South Caucasus
Regional Security Architecture,- was written and
defended while at the National Defense University in
Washington. Armenia’s National Security Strategy and
Military Doctrine are approved by the President of the
Republic of Armenia.
Dr. MG Kotanjian is a founding member of the Marshall
Center Alumni Association in Armenia. In 2007 at the
Association’s annual meeting, together with
then-Deputy Director of the Marshall Center, MG (ret.)
Dr. Horst Schmalfeld, Dr. MG Kotanjian was a keynote
speaker and presented an academic report,
-Armenian-American Methodological Cooperation in
Interagency Elaboration of Armenia’s First National
Security Strategy.-
Dr. MG Kotanjian has held the diplomatic rank of
Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary, from
which rank he is presently retired.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress