The Board of the Political Science Association of Armenia at its
meeting of October 7, 2014, expressing concern over the exacerbating
confrontation between the Russian Federation and the United States, adopted an
Address to the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the US, Their
Excellencies Mr. Vladimir Putin and Mr. Barack Obama, urging to return to the
“reset” policy in the relations between the Russian Federation and the US. The
text of the Address is delivered also among all the international missions
accredited to the Republic of Armenia. We publish below the full text of the Address
presented by the Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia,
Doctor of Political Science (RF), Distinguished Visiting Professor at the
National Defense University (US), Visiting Research Fellow at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Elected Full Member of
the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation, Major General Hayk
Kotanjian.
IT IS STILL NOT TOO LATE TO AVOID A
GLOBAL CATASTROPHE
ADDRESS TO THE PRESIDENTS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE US, THEIR
EXCELLENCIES MR. VLADIMIR PUTIN AND MR. BARACK OBAMA
The Honorable President of
the Russian
Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin!
The Honorable President of
the US Mr. Barack Obama!
All of
humanity is seriously concerned with and alarmed at the tensions increasingly
deepening and threatening to escalate into a confrontation between the two
nuclear powers ‒ the US and Russia. Due to the extremely important role, position, and influence on the
modern world, the states headed by you possess, a concern looms over the
peoples that, in case the confrontation between the two leading nations of the
world persists and aggravates, the clear signs of which are already observed,
it may leave beyond the conflict between the US and Russia. Experts have long
warned that the nuclear arsenal of the two states is enough for several-time
destruction of our common home – the planet Earth. We are confident that this
speculative conclusion should not become a reality, especially as in this case there
will be no witnesses to this event, as with the Globe all humanity inhabiting
it will disappear. We have no slightest doubt that you are not for it too.
The
Honorable Mr. Putin!
The
Honorable Mr. Obama!
By fortune the
states headed by you carry such a paramount mission as the responsibility to
ensure safe existence, development and prosperity of our planet and all the
people inhabiting it, and for their right to live in peace. Meanwhile, in terms
of the political realities of the day, the challenges are intensifying, the
sources of which are international terrorism and organized crime, drug and
human trafficking, environmental problems on a global scale. The states you head,
as the key actors in the world politics, are to lead efforts for consolidating
the international community in the struggle against these threats.
It seems
that in these circumstances the way out could be the return to the policy you have
pursued recently, which has already gone down in history as “the reset policy
of the Russian-American relations”. This is a proven policy based on
negotiations, dialogue, compromise and mutual respect, which aroused hope for peaceful
and sustainable development of peoples, led by you, and the humanity as a
whole, and received great support from the international community. We agree
with those scholars who believe that such a policy has not exhausted itself and
can serve to mitigate and improve the US-Russian relations, and contribute to the
task of normalizing the international relations.
The
Political Science Association of Armenia has the honor to request that you take
the steps necessary to return to the “reset” policy. Undoubtedly, the states
you lead possess a huge professional resource to ensure and implement the
policy of rapprochement, as well as historical experience of conflict
resolution between the two nuclear powers. Modern trends in the rise of global
confrontation make the interaction of your states within the UN Security
Council – based on principles of trust and prevalence of global security
interests ‒ necessary than ever. In addition, the Association urges you to make
use of the acquired and reviewed mechanisms of interaction between your states
within the OSCE – an organization drawing together the interests of the Russian Federation, the United States of America and the European Union, as well as a number of
countries that share the universal values of security and cooperation. In the
context of the contemporary development of the confrontation potential in Europe, the intensification of the cooperation within the OSCE is first of
all necessary from the point of view of the leading role of the powers headed
by you as the guarantors of the Pan-European security.
On the basis
of the professional duty uniting political experts of the world, the Political
Science Association of Armenia, consolidating the academic potential of
political experts, political sociologists and conflict analysts of Armenia, has
the honor to address to the Russian Political Science Association and the American
Political Science Association, with a proposal to apply their academic
expertise to solve this key problem, so fateful for the mankind.
The Honorable
President of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin, the Honorable President
of the US Mr. Barack Obama, people all across the Globe will
be deeply grateful to you for this decision, which will provide you a place of
honor in the world history!
Dr. Hayk Kotanjian
Chairman,
Political Science Association of Armenia