Problems of foreign service and diplomacy in the post-Soviet context: the case of Armenia

Abstract

The institutional development of many post-Communist countries remains a daunting task. Since the early 1990s, some of them have managed to achieve visible results in eradicating corruption and enhancing the effectiveness and accountability of public institutions, while others still struggle with several systemic problems. Since regaining its independence Armenia has managed to transform some of its public institutions by carrying out large-scale reforms; however, much remains to be done. The present research examines the institutional features of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) before the 2015 constitutional amendments, which changed the semi-presidential system of government to parliamentary democracy. It particularly looks at the MFA’s effectiveness in policy planning and formulation, its relation to the presidential administration, its recruitment strategies and the promotional prospects of the diplomatic staff. The study argues that for the past decade or so the impact of the MFA on foreign policy decisions has been limited, whereas the evaluation of recruitment and career promotion policies reveals several significant systemic deficiencies. Existing research on post-Soviet states concentrates mainly on diverse foreign policy and geopolitical problems and rarely pays attention to institutional considerations. The present research aims to address this gap.

Keywords:

• Armenia
• foreign policy
• diplomacy
• institutional development
• foreign service

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 “Law on Diplomatic Service of the RA, 2001.”

2 The new EU–Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed in the margins of the Eastern Partnership Summit on 24 November 2017. The CEPA did not include the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement (DCFTA), and many saw it as compromise between the 2013 association agreement and Armenia’s new commitments after accession to the Eurasian Economic Union.

3 Hocking et al., Futures for Diplomacy; Moses and Knutsen, “Inside out”; Rana, 21st Century Diplomacy.

4 Rana, Foreign Ministries.

5 Kelley, “New Diplomacy: Evolution of a Revolution.”

6 Kleiner, “Inertia of Diplomacy.”

7 Lane, “Modernising the Management of British Diplomacy.”

8 Rana, 21st Century Diplomacy, 13–4.

9 Mueller, “New Perspectives on Public Diplomacy,” 90.

10 Rana, Foreign Ministries, 6–7; Hocking et al., Futures for Diplomacy, 6.

11 Hocking et al., Futures for Diplomacy, 75.

12 Ibid., 7.

13 Minasyan, “Multi-Vectorism in the Foreign Policy.”

14 Oskanian, Ankakhutyan Chanaparhov, 12.

15 For more about the continuities and ruptures of Armenia’s foreign policy in the 1990 and 2000s, see Papazian, “From Ter-Petrosyan to Kocharian”; Ter-Petrossian, Armenia’s Future Relations with Turkey; Ter-Petrossian, “Entrani: Yeluytner, hodvatsner, hartsazruytsner”; Libaridian, Challenge of Statehood; Shougarian, Does Armenia Need a Foreign Policy?; Kocharyan, Zhizn’ i Svoboda.

16 In the period under consideration, the Armenian president has met with his Azerbaijani counterpart at least 18 times to find a solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. For more on this see Caspersen, “South Caucasus after Kosovo.”

17 German, “Securing the South Caucasus”; Delcour, “Between the Eastern Partnership and Eurasian Integration”; and Ter-Matevosyan et al., “Armenia in the Eurasian Economic Union.”

18 Shougarian, “We Have Not Resigned.”

19 “Serzh Sargsyani nakhyntrakan tsragiry” [“The Election Platform of Serzh Sargsyan”].

20 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Embassies, “Diplomatic Directory, 2013.”

21 “Law on Diplomatic Service of the RA, 2001,” Article 7, Amended 11.06.04.

22 The Decree of the President of the RA on the Coordination of the Common Foreign Policy of the RA Executive Bodies, 2000, 1^st clause, Arlis.am; and “Law on Diplomatic Service of the RA, 2001,” Article 7, Paragraph 2, 3, Amended 11.06.04.

23 RA Government Decision No. 1245-N, 2002, Addendum No. 1, Article 7.

24 The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.

25 RA President Order NK-107-N, Addendum 1.2.

26 Ibid., Addenda 1.6, 2.4, 3.16.

27 Ibid.

28 Sarkesian, Williams, and Cimbala, US National Security, 17, 73.

29 Interviewee No. 2.

30 Interviewee No. 3.

31 Interviewee No. 1.

32 “Armenia Still Hopes for EU Agreement.”

33 President.am, Press Releases, “Statement of President Sargsyan at the Gathering of the MFA.”

34 Ibid.

35 President.am, Statements and Messages of the President of the RA, “Excerpts from Serzh Sargsyan’s Address.”

36 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Press Releases, “Consultations of Senior Officials of MFA.”

37 RA Government Decree No 325-N on Marking the Day of the Diplomats, 2012, Arlis.am.

38 Eduard Nalbandyan, Armenia’s FM between 2008 and 2018, was a graduate of Moscow State University of International Relations. He started his diplomatic career in 1978 as an attaché in the embassy of the Soviet Union in Lebanon, then he worked at the Soviet MFA. After the SU disintegration, he became an Armenian diplomat serving as Armenia’s ambassador to Egypt and France.

39 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Press Releases, “Statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

40 Armenia had been negotiating the Association Agreement with the European Union for more than three years and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement for about two years before the 3 September presidential announcement about joining the Russian-led Customs Union.

41 For instance, Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani officer who murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) training session in Hungary in 2004, was extradited to Azerbaijan in August 2012. He received a hero’s welcome in Baku and was pardoned by Aliyev. Armenia’s Ambassador to Austria, Arman Kirakosyan, whose task was to monitor the ongoing developments of the Safarov case in Hungary, had failed to prevent it.

42 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, “Press Conference, Answers of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

43 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Report on the Activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

44 President.am, Press Releases, “Statement of President Sargsyan at the Gathering of the MFA.”

45 Ambassadors and permanent representatives are appointed and dismissed by the President of the RA (“Law on Diplomatic Service of the RA 2001,” amended on 11.06.04 No. 106-N, 22.12.10 No. 28-N, article 12).

46 These include those who went through all the diplomatic ranks in the MFA, as well as those who had been political appointees during Kocharyan’s tenure and had acquired diplomatic experience prior to their re-appointment by Sargsyan (for example, Oleg Yesayan).

47 Michael Minasyan was President Sargsyan’s son-in-law. From 2007 to 2008, he was a senior aide to then-Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. After Sargsyan’s election as president, Minasyan became the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the President. In 2013, he became Armenia’s ambassador in Vatican.

48 Vahan Hovhannisyan had experience in parliamentary diplomacy. In particular, he led the first delegation of the National Assembly of Armenia in NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly in 1999. From 2003 to 2008, he was the head of Armenia’s parliamentary delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly and the co-chair of the Armenia–Russia and Armenia–Belarus inter-parliamentary committees. Michael Minasyan was the Honorary General Consul of the Republic of San Marino in Armenia from 2005 to 2013.

49 President.am, Statements and Messages of the President of the RA.

50 In 2009, the ARF left the coalition government it had formed with the Republican Party and Prosperous Armenia Party since 2007 and became an opposition party.

51 It is believed that he was appointed to that position to continue his cancer treatment in Germany. He passed away in December 2014.

52 “Ex-Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan Will Go.”

53 Interviewee No. 2.

54 Interviewee No. 4.

55 “Law on Diplomatic Service of the RA, 2001,” amended on 11.06.04, No. 106-N, 22.12.10 No. 28-N, article 44. 1 (a), 44.3.

56 Harutyunyan, “Dilettantism Raises Its Head.”

57 Karapetyan, “Diplomacy without Foreign Policy.”

58 Andranik Manukian was severely wounded during the October 1999 terrorist attack in the Armenian parliament. Later, he was appointed Minister of Transport and Communication, then Advisor to the President. He was in the construction business. In April 2012, he was appointed as Armenia’s ambassador to Ukraine.

59 Murad Muradyan, founder and chairman of the Moscow-based BAMO construction company, was appointed Armenia’s ambassador to Iraq in September 2010.

60 Arsen Shoyan was the head of the Analytical Research Department at the Office of the President. He was appointed Armenia’s ambassador to Bulgaria in January 2010.

61 Vladimir Badalyan, an Member of Parliament (MP) in the National Assembly between 2003 and 2008, was appointed Armenia’s ambassador to Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

62 “Businessperson Sergey Sarkisov is Armenia’s New Consul General.”

63 Kopp and Gillespie, Career Diplomacy, 51.

64 Ibid.

65 McCormick, American Foreign Policy and Process, 391.

66 Armenia’s resident ambassador in Lithuania simultaneously covers Estonia and Latvia.

67 Sargsyan, “Violations of Law in Foreign Ministry.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vahram Ter-Matevosyan

Vahram Ter-Matevosyan, DrPhil from University of Bergen, is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science and International Affairs Program at the American University of Armenia (AUA). He specialises in the history, and foreign, and security policies of Armenia and Turkey. His most recent monograph is Turkey, Kemalism, and the Soviet Union: Problems of Modernization, Ideology and Interpretation (New York & London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). His research has been published in edited volumes by Routledge and Springer, and in peer-reviewed journals such as Nations and Nationalism, Europe–Asia Studies, Turkish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Eurasian Geography and Economics.

Anna Drnoian

Anna Drnoian is a Senior Research Analyst at Synopsys and a Teaching Associate at AUA. She has an MA degree in political science and international affairs from AUA. She has written on Armenia’s foreign policy and problems of institutional development. Her most recent article appeared in Eurasian Geography and Economics.