Drastamat Kanayan Institute for National Strategic Studies, NDRU, MOD, RA

Drastamat Kanayan Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), MOD, RA, was established in 2005 within the frameworks of the National Defense Research University formation in the RA, as the research component of the future university, its intellectual basis and organizational backbone. After the inauguration of the University in 2016, the INSS continues its activities within the University.

In 2006, the INSS was the academic coordinator of the interagency elaboration of Armenia’s first national security strategy via the incorporation of the US methodology with the US NDU academic counseling.  The INSS is the only state think tank, which conducts strategic analyses in the spheres of regional security and information-communication technologies and submits relevant conclusions and recommendations to the RA military-political leadership.

The INSS is developing its academic cooperation among the NDRU partners. One of its important functions is the organization of strategic political forums. Through close cooperation with relevant world think tanks, the INSS organized international conferences on regional security dynamics in 2008, 2009, 2011, and the first strategic political forum on regional security dynamics in 2012. In May, 2011, in partnership with the CSTO Secretariat, the INSS organized an international conference on the CSTO development strategy, and in June, 2013, the second strategic political forum on “Political and Security Guidelines for the Formation of the CSTO’s Military Component”.  

On 1-2 July, 2014, with support of the “International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations” an international strategic political forum on the “The integration of national and regional peacekeeping capacities into the global system of peace operations based on the principles and standards of the UN” was held in Yerevan.

During 5-6 October, 2015, an annual forum of the “International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations” was hosted in Yerevan. The Forum on “Institution - and Capacity Building for Peace: Implications of the UN Review Panel’s Recommendations for Future Missions” was attended by more than 80 foreign participants. The INSS joined the “International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations” on behalf of the RA in October 2014.

In August, 2016, Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD in History, was appointed as Deputy-Head for Research—Head, Institute for National Strategic Studies, NDRU.

The Center conducts research in two main directions, regional and functional. The main objective of the regional research is to study from the perspective of the RA strategic-security interests the security dynamics in South Caucasus and Middle East, and the interests of power centers involved in the region. The results of the research are submitted to the RA military-political leadership via policy papers, and collective monographs published in the “Working Notebooks”. Both the policy papers and the monographic studies come up with relevant conclusions and recommendations for the RA state agencies.

The Center for Regional Strategic Analyses has worked out collective monographs on the domestic and foreign policies of the RA neighbor states, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran and Georgia, and their strategic evaluations. As for the functional research, the Center has elaborated collective monographs regarding the international rating agencies’ assessments of the RA, RA-Diaspora relations, the innovations’ role in military industry, strategic guidelines for the development of war economy in the RA.

In August, 2016, Davit Manasyan, PhD in History, was appointed Head of the Center for Regional Strategic Analyses.

Owing to the vast use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in all the spheres of activity of the society, their impact on national security, in particular, the defense system, has grown great to a tangible extent. The great uncertainties in nowadays security processes, and the non-linear and complex nature of dynamics in those processes provide for the significance of using an innovative research toolkit in line with the traditional analytical methods in conducting security research. Under such circumstances, it is of vital importance to assess the impact of ICT introduction, implementation and development on the national security, the impact of the challenges regarding it, as well as to make relevant recommendations on responding those challenges. The activities of the Center for National Security Policy and Information-Communication Technologies is important from the very perspective of dealing with those problems.

The project to establish the Center was elaborated and reviewed in the US NDU, namely, the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP), during the academic fellowships of the INSS, MOD, RA, cybersecurity group experts in 2014-2015. There are two groups in the Center, the Information and Communication Technology, and the National Security Policy groups, staffed with relevantly qualified experts. The Center exposed two cornerstone documents for cyber resources management system: the draft of the “National Cybersecurity Strategy of the RA”, and the project of establishing the “National System for Cyber Resources Management in the RA”.

In August, 2016, Arman Grigoryan, PhD in Technical Sciences (Engineering), was appointed Head, Center for National Security Policy and Information-Communication Technologies, INSS, NDRU.