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Document Type
Dissertation
Major/Program
International Relations
First Advisor's Name
Mohiaddin Mesbahi
First Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Chair
Second Advisor's Name
Aisha Musa
Second Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Third Advisor's Name
Charles MacDonald
Third Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Fourth Advisor's Name
Damian Fernandez
Fourth Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Keywords
Southern Caucasus, foreign policy, Armenia, identity
Date of Defense
11-9-2007
Abstract
This dissertation is the first systematic study of Armenia’s foreign policy during the post-independence period, between 1991 and 2004. It argues that a small state’s foreign policy is best understood when looking at the regional level. Armenia’s geographic proximity to Iran, Russia and Turkey, places it in an area of heightened geopolitical interest by various great powers. This dissertation explores four sets of relationships with Armenia’s major historical ‘partners’: Russia, Iran, Turkey and the West (Europe and the United States). Each relationship reveals a complex reality of a continuous negotiation between ideas of history, collective memory, nationalism and geopolitics. A detailed study of Armenia’s relations with these powers demonstrates how actors’ relations of amity and enmity are formed to constitute a regional security complex. Turkey represents the ultimate “other”, while both Europe and Iran are seen as ideational “others”, whose role in Armenia’s foreign policy, aside from pragmatic policy considerations, reflects a normative quest. Russia and the United States, on the other hand, represent the powerful structural forces that define the regional security complex, in which Armenia operates. This dissertation argues that although Armenia has been severely constrained in certain foreign policy choices, it was adept at carving a space for action that privileged the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh over other geopolitical imperatives.
Identifier
FI08081534
Recommended Citation
Mirzoyan, Alla, "Armenia's Foreign Policy, 1991-2004: Between History and Geopolitics" (2007). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 68.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/68
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