By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Executive Director, Political Science Association of Armenia

Since the victory of the "Velvet Revolution" in Armenia, the key foreign policy issue facing the new Armenian authorities is the Karabakh conflict. The negotiation process has been stalled since the failed Kazan summit in June 2011, and the April 2016 four day war made any possible movement forward even less likely. The negotiations after April 2016 were focused on the launch of confidence building measures including the establishment of the ceasefire violations investigation mechanisms and the increase of the OSCE monitoring mission personnel. However, even these modest goals were difficult to achieve as Azerbaijan was urging for a start of "substantial" negotiations on issues of territories and status, otherwise perceiving the confidence building measures as a way to cement the current status quo. READ MORE

• March 19, 2019

Oil prices rose 1 percent on Monday, lifted by comments from Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih that an end to OPEC-led supply cuts was unlikely before June.

• March 11, 2019

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to review global oil demand and supply balance as the group maintains production cuts during its April meeting, a senior Gulf oil official said on Monday.

• March 11, 2019

From breaking into computers to paying for a megaphone, Russian efforts to undermine the U.S. political system have been spelled out in detail by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has described an elaborate campaign of hacking and propaganda during the 2016 presidential race.

• March 11, 2019

Russia’s Gazprom increased its share of the European gas market last year despite a rising challenge from imports of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG), company officials told investors in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

• March 9, 2019

By the European Geopolitical Forum Editorial Staff

In 2018, the Republic of Kazakhstan successfully completed its two-year membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Over this period, Astana acted as an honest broker, known for its effective balanced approach and neutrality against all international actors. In just two years, representatives of Kazakhstan took part in more than 1,000 open and closed UNSC meetings, 38 informal events, and contributed to 115 resolutions and 48 statements of the Council Presidency. READ MORE. See the original on-line media publication here

• March 6, 2019

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Executive Director, Political Science Association of Armenia

Since the launch of Chinese “One Belt, One Road (OBOR)” initiative in September 2013 later renamed as "Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)", the bulk of academic research has been devoted to the evaluation of the suggested land and maritime routes of this gigantic project. In recent years the main focus of the Western and especially American expert community was the link between BRI and Chinese foreign policy strategy with more emphasize of possible negative ramifications of the project for the states involved. The terms such as “debt diplomacy” or “debt trap” were disseminating more and more in both academic and political circles. READ MORE

• March 6, 2019

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told his Bulgarian counterpart Boiko Borissov on Monday that Russia needs guarantees from the European Commission prior to choosing Bulgaria as a route for its TurkStream gas pipeline project.

• March 4, 2019