THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION: 1955 – 2015 THE 7TH
ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE,
NOVEMBER 19-21, 2015: MOSCOW
THE
GREETING ADDRESS OF THE CHAIRMAN OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION OF ARMENIA
DR. HAYK S. KOTANJIAN TO THE 7TH ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF POLITICAL
SCIENCE ON BEHALF OF THE POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATIONS OF THE NEW INDEPENDENT
STATES
Dear Madam Chair,
Dear Colleagues,
On
behalf of Political Science Association of Armenia and – as it was kindly offered
to me – on behalf of sister Associations of the New Independent States I have
the honor to extend brief greetings to the participants and guests of the 7th
All-Russian Congress of Political Science.
The
reality in our field of Political Science viz. Strategic Security Studies is
that in our research and applied-academic developments the number of new
threats and their various configurations is growing. In this situation we have
to academically understand the ways of promoting the dialogue and cooperation
under the hardly predictable hybrid forms of armed struggle.
Responding
to one of the main topics of the All-Russian Congress of Political Science, I
am pleased to note that at the dawn of the US “reset policy” in 2010 I happened
to be the academic consultant of the “US-RUSSIA Strategic Dialogue” at John F.
Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University involving the leading
Russian and American Generals as well as strategic analysts that enables to
professionally follow the current dynamics of this process. Since 2014 the
subject of our special attention has been the alarming deterioration of
relations between Russia and the West, which according to a number of leading
international experts led to the threshold of a “new-generation Cold Peace-War”.
We can admit that this situation adversely affects the promotion of security
interests and development of all respected states and organizations represented
in our Congress. Let me express confidence in our professional community’s clear
understanding of the fact that the constructive systemic reset of international
relations with the resumption of the dialogue between Russia and the West stems
from the interests of security and sustainable development of all international
entities.
The
problem of filling the reset of these relations with a new meaningful content
accompanied by the understanding of ways of comprehensive development of
cooperation in the economic, political, military, communications and other
fields becomes urgent due to the globalizing terrorist threat under a scenario
with the clash-of-civilizations symptomatic features – presented years ago by our distinguished
colleague from Harvard, Professor Samuel P. Huntington. These catastrophic
symptoms are evidenced by the crash of the Russian aircraft blown down to
pieces over Sinai, terrorist attacks in Paris, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel,
Afghanistan, and other countries all across the Globe.
The
conflicting relationships between millions of migrants and local population of Europe
– in connection with the problem of their cultural compatibility and
conflicting divergence of their demographic dynamics – warn of value
preferences and lifestyles lurking in the depths of this clash.
It
should be particularly noted
that recently emerging positive messages directed to the improvement of
relations between Russia and the West in the context of convergence of
positions in the fight against “Islamic State” allow us to hope that the
dialogue’s resumption – based on the rethinking of the content and mechanisms
of international cooperation and consolidation of leading actors’ efforts in
confronting the challenges of terrorism threatening the outbreak of a global
conflict among civilizations – could be the basis for preventing an impending
crisis in the global security system and shaping a new more secure world order.
In this regard, let me run the
errand of the Board of our Association and read an excerpt from its Address to
His Excellency the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin and
His Excellency the US President, Mr. Barack Obama, adopted in October 2014: -
CIT. – “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” (Europe et Orient, jeudi 9 octobre 2014,
“IT IS STILL NOT TOO LATE TO AVOID A
GLOBAL CATASTROPHE”,
http://europeetorient.blogspot.am/2014/10/it-is-still-not-too-late-to-avoid.html).
I am
sure that our discussions within our Congress – synthesizing political-science
knowledge and art of its application in political-diplomatic, economic,
military, and communications practice – will help us to find appropriate solutions
that can provide new impetus to the development of political science and
increasing its critical “smart-power” influence on successful joint
normalization of interstate relations’ climate in the system of global security
– given the very dangerous explosiveness of this period of time.
Let me
wish us all a fruitful work.
Thank
you.
Major
General Hayk S. Kotanjian, Doctor of Political Science (RF), Professor,
Counterterrorism Fellow (USA), Head
of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, MOD, RA
