Book Talk: A Precarious Armenia in a Changing World Order

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).

Panelists

Gerard Jirair Libaridian

Gerard Jirair Libaridian is a Former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia and Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan. He has served as the director of the Armenian Studies program at the University of Michigan since 2007. Libaridian has published and edited extensively on Armenian political affairs and history.

Anatol Lieven (Moderator)

Anatol Lieven directs the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and in the War Studies Department of King’s College London. From 1985 to 1998, Lieven worked as a journalist in South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and covered the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and the southern Caucasus. Lieven is the author of several books, including "Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power?" (Yale University Press, 1998)