Structure or Agency? Explaining Armenia's Foreign Policy Evolution

The article scrutinizes Armenia’s foreign policy trajectory since its independence. It applies a model of foreign policy analysis that takes into account structural, dispositional, and intentional dimensions and outlines a more dynamic structureagency interplay. By contrast to reductionist system-level explanations, the argument is that individual-level factors such as the perceptions and beliefs of Armenia’s presidents are central to understanding why Armenia embarked on a foreign policy path where it became economically and militarily absorbed by Russia. The case study of Armenia’s foreign policy serves as a plausibility probe that illustrates the relevance of individual-level factors in foreign policy decision making. The article thus offers insights into the foreign policy of a small state