PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel.: 617-489-1610
Email: hq@naasr.org
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR TO DISCUSS AFTERMATH OF RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN WAR AT COLUMBIA
Dr. Gayane Novikova, founder and director of the Spectrum Center for
Strategic Analysis in Yerevan, Armenia, and currently Fellow at Harvard
University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,
will give a lecture entitled "Aftermath of the Russian-Georgian War:
Implications for Internal and External Actors," on Thursday, October 8,
2009, at 6:30 p.m., in the Lindsay Rogers Common Room (Room 707) of the
International Affairs Building at Columbia University (420 West 118th
Street, New York, NY).
The lecture will be co-sponsored by the Armenian Center at Columbia
University, the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African
Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University, and the National Association
for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).
The South Caucasus has been characterized as one of the most unstable
regions of post-Soviet space since the early 1990s. The insecurity
reached its latest peak in August 2008 when military actions on Georgian
territory caused drastic changes in the configuration of the security
structure in the South Caucasus and illuminated the role and importance
of each regional and non-regional actor.
The August 2008 war in Georgia has excluded the possibility of the
creation of any acceptable format of regional cooperation in the South
Caucasus. Even more, the status quo established after the Five-Day War
will be determined in the medium-term by the following factors: the
final withdrawal of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the jurisdiction of
Georgia, Russia’s additional political and military leverage in the
region, Azerbaijan’s continued policy of complementarity, Turkey’s
attempted use of this crisis to increase its overall role in the region,
and Armenia’s attempts to emphasize its presence in international
politics and increase its significance for external actors, trying
thereby to balance Russian influence.
Dr. Gayane Novikova is an experienced researcher in the security and
politics of Armenia and the South Caucasus. She has served at the
Department of Arabic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (1978-2000) and
the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (1994-2000).
The author of more than sixty articles and four monographs, she is also
the editor of twelve collections of articles published by the Center for
Strategic Analysis. She is currently carrying out research on the
"South Caucasus Between Russia and the West."
More information about the lecture is available by contacting Nanor
Kebranian at nk@columbia.edu or 212-851-4002 or by contacting NAASR at
hq@naasr.org or 617-489-1610, or by writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave.,
Belmont, MA 02478.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress