team

Rouben Azizian

Professor

About

Rouben Azizian is an honorary professor and former Director at Massey University’s Centre for Defence and Security Studies. His major areas of expertise are Asia-Pacific security environment and architecture, diplomacy and conflict resolution, security sector governance and post-Soviet politics.
Professor Azizian is also the Chair of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA), Editor-in-Chief of the National Security Journal and member of editorial boards of various international academic journals.
Previously he taught at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, USA (2002-2015) and the Department of Political Studies at the University of Auckland (1994-2001). Prior to becoming a full-time academic, Professor Azizian had an extensive career in the Soviet and later Russian Foreign Service, which included assignments in Nepal (1972-1978), Sri Lanka (1980-1985) and New Zealand (1991-1994).
Professor Azizian was born in Yerevan and graduated from the Secondary School # 8 of A.S. Pushkin. He studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and completed his PhD at the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow.   
 

List of publications

  • Rouben Azizian, “The Regional Security Architecture of the Asia-Pacific at the Crossroads” in The Yerevan Primer. A World in Transition, edited by Kabir Taneja and Natalie Boyse, Observer Research Foundation, September 2024, pp.60-65
  • Tadashi Iwami and Rouben Azizian, “Navigating Strategic Waters: The Japan–New Zealand Partnership in the South Pacific”, East Asian Policy, 2024,16:50-67
  • Rouben Azizian, “Self-determination or Territorial Integrity?,” New Zealand International Review, Jan/Feb 2024; v.49 n.1:p.2-5
  • Rouben Azizian, “Self-determination or territorial integrity? Mixed messages from the Ukraine war” in State of Threat. The challenges to Aotearoa New Zealand’s national security, edited by Wil Hoverd and Deidre McDonald, Massey University Press, 2023, pp, 231-242
  • Rouben Azizian, New Zealand and Pacific Security: Re-engagement in the Face of Strategic Competition, in Strategic Competition & Security Cooperation in the Blue Pacific, edited by Deon Canyon, The Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security, 2022, pp. 49-68
  • R Azizian and T Johanson, “Finding the democratic balance: Australian and New Zealand national security coordination,” in Routledge Handbook of Democracy and Security, edited by Leonard Weinberg, Elizabeth Francis, and Eliot Assoudeh, 2021, pp.159-171
  • Regionalism, Security and Cooperation in Oceania (editor and contributor), APCSS, 2015
  • American and Russian Perspectives on Security and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (co-editor and contributor), APCSS-FEFU, 2012
  • Ethnic Diasporas and Great Power Strategies in Asia, (co-editor and contributor), India Research Press, 2007
  • Russia, America and Security in the Asia-Pacific (co-editor and contributor), APCSS, 2007
  • Islam, Oil and Geopolitics: Central Asia after September 11, (co-editor and contributor), Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007
  • Nuclear Developments in South Asia and the Future of Global Arms Control, (editor&contributor), CSS, Wellington, 2001
  • Russia in Asia: Unwelcome Intruder Or Accommodative Player?, CSS, Wellington, 2000
  • Strategic and Economic Dynamics of Northeast Asia (editor&contributor), CSS, Wellington, 1999
  • Ethnic Challenges Beyond Borders. The Central Asian Conundrum (co-editor and contributor), MacMillan, London, 1998
  • Security Sector Development: challenges and opportunities for the Indo Asia Pacific, Asia Pacific Defense Forum, Volume 39, Issue 3, July 1, 2014
  • “United States and the Asia-Pacific: Balancing Rhetoric and Action” in Rouben Azizian and Artyom Lukin (eds), American and Russian Perspectives on Security and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (co-editor and contributor), APCSS-FEFU, 2012
  • “Eurasian Response to China’s Rise: Russia and Kazakhstan in Search of Optimal China Policy” (co-authored) in the special issue on “How China’s Rise Is Changing Asia’s Landscape and Seascape,” Asian Politics and Policy, Vol. 4, No. 3 (July 2012)
  • Afghanistan Regional Responsibility, Asia-Pacific Defense Forum, Volume 37, Issue 3, 2012
  • “China-US tensions: new era or old pattern?” (co-authored), New Zealand International Review, Vol 35, No 6, November/December 2010
  • “Russia’s Transnational Security: Challenges, Policies, and International Cooperation” in David Fouse (ed.), Issues for Engagement: Asian Perspectives on Transnational Security Challenges, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, 2010
  • “Countering Ideological Support for Terrorism: Perspectives from the United States, Russia, and China (with Graeme Herd and Yu Yixuan)” in Paul J. Bolt, Su Changhe, and Sharyl Cross (eds.), The United States, Russia, and China Confronting Global Terrorism and Security Challenges in the 21st Century, Praeger, 2008
  • Countering Islamic Radicalism in Central Asia, Connections, The Quarterly Journal, Winter Supplement 2006
  • “Islamic Radicalism in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan” in Anne Aldis and Graeme P. Herd (eds.), The Ideological War on Terror: Worldwide Strategies for Counter-Terrorism, Routledge, 2007
  • Terrorism, Geopolitics, and Multinational Security Cooperation in Central Asia (co-authored), American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Volume 23, Summer 2006, Number 3
  • “Russia, North Korea and the Missile Diplomacy” in Yongjin Zhang (ed.), Whither The Six Party Talks? Issues, Stakes and Perspectives, New Zealand Asia Institute, 2006
  • “The Great Powers and Contemporary Ethnic Diasporas: Comparative Perspectives” in Robert Wirsing and Rouben Azizian (eds), Ethnic Diasporas and Great Power Strategies in Asia, India Research Press, 2006
  • “Russia in the Asia-Pacific: Trends, Threats and Common Threads” in Rouben Azizian and Boris Reznik (eds), Russian and American Perspectives on Asia-Pacific Security, APCSS/FENU joint publication, 2006
  • “Russia, America and New Conflicts in Central Asia” in Robert Patman (ed.), Globalization and Conflict: National Security in a ‘New’ Strategic Era, Routledge, 2006
  • “Japan’s Relations with Russia: The Painful Search of a New Paradigm” in Yoichiro Sato and Satu Limaye (eds.), Japan in a Dynamic Asia: Coping with the New Security Challenges, Lexington Books, A division of Rowman and Littlefield, 2006
  • “Central Asia and the United States 2004-2005: Moving Beyond Counter-Terrorism?” in Satu Limaye (ed.), The Asia-Pacific and the United States 2004-2005, APCSS, April 2005
  • Post-Elections Russia: promising stability or worrying uniformity?, New Zealand International Review, Vol. XXIX, No. 4, July/August 2004
  • Russia-India Relations: Stability Amidst Strategic Uncertainty, Special Assessment, APCSS, June 2004
  • The Kaliningrad Issue in Russia –EU Relations: Balancing Security, Sovereignty and Human Rights, Asia-Pacific Journal of EU Studies, Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2003
  • “The Optimists Have the Lead, for Now: Russia’s China Debate,” in Asia’s China Debate, Special Assessment, APCSS, December 2003
  • A Marriage of Convenience: Russia and U.S. Foreign Policy, Summer 2003, Asian Affairs, Volume 30, No.2
  • Russia and North Korea: Time to Move from Tactics to Strategy, In the National Interest, Vol. 2, Issue 14, April 2003
  • Russia and Pakistan: The Difficult Path to Rapprochement, (co-authored), Asian Affairs, Spring 2003, Vol. 30, No. 1
  • A Marriage of Convenience: Russia’s Response to U.S. Security Policies in Asia-Pacific Responses to U.S. Security Policies, APCSS, March 2003
  • North Korea, Russia and Japan: Turning Northeast Asian Challenges into Opportunities, In the National Interest, Vol. I, Issue II, November 2002
  • New Zealand and the United States: friends, not allies (in Russian), in Russia and the East: Perspectives from Siberia, Irkutsk University Press, 2002
  • The Nuclear and Asian Dimensions of Russia’s New Security Doctrine in Rouben Azizian (ed.), Nuclear Developments in South Asia and the Future of Global Arms Control, CSS, Wellington, 2001
  • South Asia: the most dangerous place in the world, New Zealand International Review, July/August, 2000
  • Russia’s Staged Democracy, New Zealand International Review, March/April 2000 Where to From Here?
  • New Zealand's foreign and defense policy at the crossroads, New Zealand International Review, January/February 2000
  • The APEC summit: from acceleration to consolidation, New Zealand International Review, November/December 1999
  • New Zealand Foreign and Defense Policy at the End of the 20th Century: Views of Political Parties, CSS, Wellington, 1999
  • Russia and China: an uneasy partnership, in Rouben Azizian (ed.), Strategic and Economic Dynamics of Northeast Asia, CSS, Wellington, 1999
  • Russia's Financial Crisis: what went wrong? , New Zealand International Review, January/February1999
  • The Strategic and Economic Dynamics of Northeast Asia (co-authored), New Zealand International Review, November/December 1998
  • New Zealand: Perestroika with a Happy Ending? , Diplomaticheski Yezhegodnik, Moscow, 1997
  • Human Rights in the Post-Soviet States: why is their neglect neglected? , in Rorden Wilkinson, Culture, Ethnicity and Human Rights in International Relations, NZIIA, Auckland, 1997 (1997)
  • Russia's Asia-Pacific dilemma, New Zealand International Review, July/August 1995
  • Russian Far East: With Moscow or Alone? New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 1995
  • Pacifying the near abroad, New Zealand International Review, May/June 1994
  • The Russian Military Adjust to New Realities (co-authored), New Zealand International Review, May/June 1994
  • Russian Foreign Policy: a new direction (co-authored), New Zealand International Review, September/October 1993
  • Russia and New Zealand: A New Climate in Relations, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 1993

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