The Academic-Publishing Center, NDRU, MOD, RA

The Academic-Publishing Center is one of the units of the NDRU. It issues the “Haikakan Banak” (Armenian Army) defense-academic quarterly, with mainly papers in Armenian language with Russian and English summaries. It also publishes the research products elaborated in the INSS, in separate issues (“Working Notebooks”) and periodic publications.

The goal of the Academic-Publishing Center is to facilitate the promulgation of the advanced defense-academic thought, knowledge and experience in the RA Armed Forces, publication of the products of the NDRU strategic research, training the academic staff in the RA Armed Forces, consolidation of the army-society liaison, developing the Armenian defense-academic terminology.

“Haikakan Banak” defence-academic journal was established on 11 October, 1994, by then Defence Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s order on the recommendation of the First Deputy Defense Minister LtG Norat Ter-Grigoryants. The works on creating the journal were assigned to Col Hayk S. Kotanjian, Doctor of Political Science (now ret. LtG, Professor).

The goal of the “Haikakan Banak” defense-academic journal is to further:

• the promulgation of the domestic and world advanced defense-academic thought, knowledge and experience in the RA Armed Forces;
• the professional development of the RA Armed Forces staff, the moral, psychological and military upbringing, the cultivation of the sublime sense of patriotism;
• training academic cadres in the RA Armed Forces;
• the formulation of the results of the INSS strategic research and their presentation to the RA military-political leadership, as well as the heads of interested agencies of public administration system;
• consolidation of the army-society liaison;
• the elaboration of the Armenian defense-academic terminology, and development of the conceptual and terminological apparatus.

The trilingual (Armenian with Russian and English summaries) “Haikakan Banak” journal is in the list of the doctoral periodicals of the Supreme Certifying Commission and does hold its specific place among other academic periodicals.

The journal covers a wide range of topics: it includes academic publications regarding utterly various fields of the military affairs. Throughout more than 20 years of its existence the journal has been into correspondence with over 400 specialists from the Armed Forces, other power structures, what’s more, from civilian academic and higher educational, including also foreign institutions.

The issues of the journal are delivered to foreign diplomatic missions in the RA and to the RA diplomatic missions abroad, as well as to the CSTO Joint Staff and to George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Among the correspondents of the journal are military experts from the RF, the US, Germany, Israel, Turkey and other states, their articles are also fully published in the original (Russian and English) languages.

From 2008 onwards, each issue of the journal has been dedicated to the defense reforms being carried out in a certain sphere of the Armed Forces, moreover, those expert-analytical texts are actually being included in the troops tactical training programs. The latest issues of the journal were dedicated to the multi-sided elaboration of the “Nation-Army” concept and covering its implementation issues.

In cooperation with the Political Science Association of Armenia, in 2012 the editorial staff published “Defense Security Explanatory Armenian-Russian-English, Russian-Armenian, English-Armenian Dictionary” (around 3000 simple and compound terms) and in 2015 — another dictionary much bigger in volume (14000 simple and compound terms).

6 monographs on security studies and military psychology, and 1 expert and teaching handbook have been published by the journal.

The Editors-in-Chief of the “Haikakan Banak” defense-academic journal were: in 1994-1998, Col Hayk Kotanjian (now LtG, ret., Head of the Academic-Advisory Council), in 1998-2005, Col Arkady Sargsyan, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Academician, Armenian Academy of Engineering and the RF Military Academy). From 2005 up to now, the Editor-in-Chief of the “Haikakan Banak” defense-academic journal is Colonel (ret.) Davit Chilingaryan, Head, Academic-Publishing Center, NDRU, MOD, RA.

Four times annually the NDRU Academic-Publishing Center issues the “Working Notebooks” Appendix of the “Haikakan Banak” defense-academic journal, which is designed to brief the state leadership and the professional circles on the applied works by the University Analytical Center experts on Armenia’s security-related research monitoring and strategic planning issues.

The “Working Notebooks” has quite a wide coverage, including studies on the security sphere of regional states, professional write-ups related to the Armenian Diaspora, information security and other matters. In the features of the Appendix, other specialists beyond the NDRU are also involved.

From the very first printing the “Working Notebooks” received positive acknowledgement from representatives of state, political, military, diplomatic, religious, public spheres in the Republic of Armenia and Republic of Artsakh, specialists from certain foreign academic-educational and analytical centers, to name, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the US National Defense University.