PANEL | Nagorno-Karabakh: From Conflict to Sustainable Peace?
Nagorno-Karabakh: From Conflict to Sustainable Peace?
Online via Zoom: *Please click HERE to register.*
10:00 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Time, Jan. 14, 2021
Summary:
On September 27, 2020, nearly three decades of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh escalated into full-scale war. Forty-four days later, on November 10th, a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement between the two countries brought a formal end to fighting. Seven districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh returned to Azerbaijani control, as well as part of Nagorno-Karabakh itself.
According to the agreement, Russian peacekeepers have been dispatched to the region for five years (with the possibility of extension), economic and transportation links are to be unblocked, and internally displaced persons and refugees are to be given the right of return. Yet the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains undefined, and the agreement is not a formal peace treaty. In the midst of this new status quo, what comes next for Nagorno-Karabakh?
This panel will discuss the reasons for and outcomes of the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the remaining questions surrounding the ceasefire agreement between the two countries. Panelists will also discuss the changing geopolitics and geopolitical actors in the region, including the role of Russia, Turkey and the Minsk Group countries, and the necessary elements for building a sustainable peace in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Panelists:
Panelist: Dr. Philip Gamaghelyan, Assistant Professor, Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego
Bio:
Philip Gamaghelyan, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego where 
he teaches courses in conflict analysis and resolution, mediation, politics of memory, and program design, monitoring & evaluation. He is the author of Conflict Resolution Beyond the International Relations Paradigm: Evolving Designs as a Transformative Practice in Nagorno-Karabakh and Syria (2017).
Gamaghelyan is also a conflict resolution scholar-practitioner, the co-founder and board member of the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation, and the managing editor of the Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation (www.caucasusedition.net). He works in the post- Soviet states, as well as Turkey, Syria, and other conflict regions engaging policy makers, journalists, educators, social scientists, and other discourse-creating professionals. His research is focused on politics of memory in conflict contexts as well as on critical re-evaluation and design of conflict resolution interventions.
Panelist: Dr. Resat Kasaba, Ann H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington
Bio:
Resat Kasaba, is Ann H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy and an expert in the history and politics of Turkey and 
the Middle East. Kasaba served as the director of the Jackson School for 10 years, completing his tenure in June 2020. He is currently researching the history of U.S. foreign policy in Turkey, and the political consequences of the rural-urban divide in modern Turkey.
Kasaba served as President of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) (2017-2019) and as a board member of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (2015-2018). Kasaba has written and edited seven books and over 40 articles and opinion pieces.
Panelist: Dr. Kamal Makili-Aliyev, Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University; affiliated researcher, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Bio:
Kamal Makili-Aliyev, LLD, is a senior lecturer at Malmö University, and affiliated researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of 
Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He is the author of Contested Territories and International Law (Routledge, 2020) about the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict.
Makili-Aliyev was previously working in the fields of international law and international relations (specializing in international security, defense and conflict) as a senior research fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies (SAM) and as a senior legal officer in the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. has also served as a vice-rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University Baku Branch and senior legal advisor at the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan. He is a Fellow of National Security Institute in Amherst, MA (U.S.)
Moderator: Dr. Scott Radnitz, Herbert Ellison Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, University of Washington
Bio:
Scott Radnitz is the Herbert J. Ellison Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Jackson School of International 
Studies at the University of Washington. He does research on post-Soviet politics with an emphasis on Central Asia and the Caucasus, specializing in topics such as authoritarianism, identity, and informal politics. His book, Weapons of the Wealthy: Predatory Regimes and Elite-Led Protests in Central Asia, was published by Cornell University Press in 2010. Articles have appeared in journals including Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Democracy, Political Geography, Political Communication, and Post-Soviet Affairs. Policy commentary has appeared in Foreign Policy, The National Interest, The Guardian, Slate, and the Monkey Cage/Washington Post blog. He is an associate editor of Communist and Post-Communist Studies, a member of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security (PONARS) in Eurasia, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Kennan Institute. His second book, Revealing Schemes: The Politics of Conspiracy in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2021.
Registration:
*Please click HERE to register.*
For more information, please email the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at reecas@uw.edu.