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”, https://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