The Security Of Small States And Armenia’s Diplomatic And Strategic Choices(1991-2020)

The great powers dominate the changes and development of the international system and play the mainstay role in the international community.The interaction of great powers has always been the focus of mainstream international relations theoretical research.However,small states on the fringes of the system are also its organic components.As participants in international security and world order,small states also play a role that cannot be underestimated in the stability and security of the system.This article focuses on the security issues of small states,so the definition of small states is mainly from the perspective of security.Constrained by the scale effect and lack of adequate security self-help capabilities,small states are vulnerable to system shocks and cannot independently bear the consequences of shocks,showing obvious vulnerability and dependence on the system security environment.For this reason,under the current international political and economic system,small states tend to choose the diplomatic strategies of "alliance","balance of power","neutrality" and "collective cooperation" to meet their security needs as much as possible.Different security diplomacy strategies have their own emphases,are suitable for different national conditions of small states,and provide different levels of security guarantees.Armenia provides a special case for the study of small states and small state security issues.From independence in 1991 to 2020,Armenia,a small border country in the South Caucasus,has undergone four leadership changes.However,despite minor differences,the previous regime changes have not brought about major adjustments in diplomatic strategy.Why has the diplomatic strategy of the small state Armenia shown such obvious continuity for nearly 30 years after independence? What kind of security and diplomatic difficulties do Armenian policymakers face as a small state when making strategic choices?Behind Armenia’s diplomatic strategic continuity issue is its prominent national security concerns such as territorial security,regime security,and economic and energy security of a small state.Confined by extremely low national autonomy,the small state of Armenia presents a high degree of vulnerability,unable to rely on its own security capabilities to solve national security issues.At the same time,the pressure from surrounding conflicts and the different security structures of regional and world powers have further shaped its security dilemma.Because of the excessive concern about security,Armenia’s diplomatic strategy for nearly 30 years after independence has revolved around the Russian camp.By mortgaging diplomatic behavior and “autonomy”in national policy in exchange for “security” commitments from powerful allies,this also makes Armenia It has been under Russia’s "protection" and "control" for a long time.Choosing the "alliance" strategy instead of "balance of power" and other diplomatic strategies was forced by Armenia,and it was also the only choice for maintaining security at that stage.Because of its marginal geopolitical value and limited balancing means,Armenia does not have the necessary and sufficient conditions to establish a sound and balanced diplomatic strategy.This article attempts to introduce the security perspective of small states and the theory of "security and autonomy exchange" to explain the logic of their diplomatic behavior,which will also help to understand the behavior logic and diplomatic obstacles of other small states that are still trapped in the dilemma of survival and security.From a structural point of view,this paper mainly includes four parts: introduction,main body,conclusion and references.The introduction part discusses the research background and significance of the selected topic,systematically combs the research status at home and abroad,and puts forward the research methods and main innovations of this paper.The text is divided into four chapters: the first chapter introduces the theoretical basis of small state security and diplomacy,defines the concept of small state,elaborates on its scale effect and vulnerability,and summarizes four common small state diplomatic strategic choices,and focused on the "Security-Independence" exchange theory in the diplomacy of small states.The second chapter analyzes the small state case of Armenia,and elaborates the small state security dilemma faced by Armenia from the perspective of small state characteristics and geo-security environment.The third chapter reviews the evolution of Armenia’s diplomatic strategy in different stages since independence,in order to divide Armenia into three stages according to different political factions and ruling forces.The fourth chapter analyzes the characteristics,internal logic,influence and challenges of Armenia’s diplomatic strategy from 1991 to2020,and analyzes and elaborates the prospect of Armenia’s diplomatic strategy after the second Naka conflict.