FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR TO DISCUSS SECURITY IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS AT NAASR

Dr. Gayane Novikova, founder and director of the Spectrum Center for Strategic Analy-sis in Yerevan, Armenia, and currently Fulbright Research Scholar at the Davis Center for Rus-sian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, will give a lecture on “The 2008 Five-Day War and Shifts in Security in the South Caucasus” on Thursday, July 9, 2009, at 8:00 p.m., at the Na-tional Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA.
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 ac-ceptable format of regional cooperation in the South Caucasus. Even more, the status quo es-tablished after the Five-Day War will be determined in the medium-term by the following fac-tors: the final withdrawal of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the jurisdiction of Georgia, Rus-sia’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 sig-nificance for external actors, trying thereby to balance Russian influence.
Dr. Gayane Novikova is an experienced researcher in the security and politics of Arme-nia 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 arti-cles published by the Center for Strategic Analysis. She is currently carrying out research on the “South Caucasus Between Russia and the West.”
Admission to the lecture at NAASR is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR Center is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and in adjacent areas. The lecture will begin promptly at 8:00 p.m.
More information about the lecture is available by calling 617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing hq@naasr.org, or writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
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June 22, 2009

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