Dr. Rouben Azizian came to the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in January 2002.  His main areas of research, teaching and outreach activity are Regional Security Cooperation Mechanisms, Diplomacy and Confidence Building, Security Sector Development, Energy Security as well as Russian, Central and South Asian Security Issues.

Before joining APCSS, Dr Azizian taught at the Department of Political Studies of the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1994-2001. During that time, he also regularly lectured at the Air Force and Navy Colleges of New Zealand.  In 1998-2001, Dr Azizian was the President of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs.

Dr. Azizian has published seven books and monographs as well as numerous book chapters, journal articles and working papers on foreign policy and security of Russia, Central Asia, South Asia, Northeast Asia as well as New Zealand.  His major publications include:  Ethnic Diasporas and Great Power Strategies in Asia, with Robert Wirsing, (2007); Russia, America and Security in the Asia-Pacific, with Boris Reznik, (2007); Islam, Oil and Geopolitics:  Central Asia after September 11, with Elizabeth Davis, (2007); Nuclear Developments in South Asia and the Future of Global Arms Control (2001); Russia in Asia:  An Unwelcome Intruder or Accommodating Player? (2000); Strategic and Economic Dynamics of Northeast Asia (1999); Ethnic Challenges Beyond Borders:  The Chinese and Russian Perspectives on Central Asia, with Yongjin Zhang, (1998).

Prior to becoming a full-time academic, Dr. Azizian had an extensive career in the Soviet and later Russian Foreign Service, which included assignments in Nepal (1972-1978) as Attaché and Third Secretary; Sri Lanka (1980-1985) as Second and First Secretary; and New Zealand (1991-1994) as Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission. 

Dr. Azizian is a member of the Editorial Boards of the journal of Asian Politics and Policy, Australasian Journal of Human Security and Central Asia Journal of Area Studies, Peshawar, Pakistan.

Books published

“Ethnic Diasporas and Great Power Strategies in Asia” edited by Dr. Robert G. Wirsing and Dr. Rouben Azizan, APCSS and India Research Press, 2007

Islam, Oil and Geopolitics: Central Asia after September 11, (with Elizabeth Davis), 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

Book chapters and articles

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

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

Book Reviews

Elizabeth Wishnick, Mending Fences: The Evolution of Moscow’s China Policy from Brezhnev to Yeltsin, China Review International (forthcoming)

Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 2004

Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence, The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 2003

Ashley Tellis, India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture, Contemporary Southeast Asia, vol. 24, no. 2, August 2002

Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Military Islam in Central Asia, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2, December 2002

Referee for the Emergence of the New Terrorism, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002

Graeme Gill and Roger Markwick, Russia’s Stillborn Democracy, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 36, no.1, 2001

Lilia Shevtsova, Yeltsin’s Russia: Myths and Reality, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 2001

Nataliya Gevorkyan, First Person: Self-portrait by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, The Dominion, September 2, 2000

Stuart McMillan, APEC in Focus, New Zealand International Review, January/February 2000

David Carlton, The Search for Stability in Russia and the Former Soviet Bloc, The Ethnic Conflict Research Digest, vol. 2, No.1, February 1999

Manuscript Reviewer for SIETAR International, Fall 1999

Peter Cozens, A Maritime Nation, Political Science, Vol. 49, no.2, January 1998

Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 48, No. 6, September 1996

Frederick Starr, the Legacy of History in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 1995

Ronald Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 1995

Ramesh Thakur, The Politics and Economics of India’s Foreign Policy, Political Science, Vol. 47, No.2, December 1995

Ronald Suny, Looking Toward Ararat, Armenia in Modern History, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 1993