The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led many to declare the end of the “post-Soviet era”, just as Azerbaijan’s destruction of the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh has been taken as indicating the collapse of Russian power in the southern Caucasus. Is this true, and if it is, what does this mean for the Republic of Armenia with its own domestic and regional challenges that have, in one or another, been linked to Russia and the Soviet Union for the preceding 200 years? And is there any chance that the West will be able to create a security order of its own in the region?

To help dissect and investigate the causes and effects of these developments in Armenia itself, the South Caucasus, and the former Soviet Union, Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute, was joined by Professor Gerard Jirair Libaridian, an eminent Armenian historian and former diplomat. They discussed Dr. Libaridian’s most recent publication, A Precarious Armenia: The Third Republic, the Karabakh Conflict, and Genocide Politics (Gomidas Institute Books, 2023).