Following the 44-day war and particularly since 2022, Armenia has begun developing a new multilayered security and deterrence system aimed at preventing possible Azerbaijani aggression. This was stated by expert David Petrosyan.
The First Components of the New System
According to Petrosyan, Armenia’s previous security mechanisms — membership in the CSTO and interstate agreements with Russia — proved insufficient to fully guarantee the country’s security.
Their limitations, he said, became particularly evident during Azerbaijan’s incursions into Armenian territory in 2022 and later during the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Petrosyan identified the deployment of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Armenia as one of the first important components of the new deterrence system.
He described the agreement on TRIPP reached on August 8 as another major step.
“Today our deterrence system is multilayered,” the expert said, also highlighting the development of artificial intelligence infrastructure and AI factories.
AI Infrastructure as a Deterrence Factor
Petrosyan argues that the development of AI infrastructure has not only economic but also security significance.
An important component, he said, is the economic interest of the United States. The objective is to make the potential cost of an attack on Armenia as high as possible for Azerbaijan.
According to the expert, any military attack could paralyze the country’s economic and technological systems, which could in turn affect the interests of Armenia’s various international partners.
AI infrastructure could therefore become an additional component of Armenia’s deterrence system.
At the same time, Petrosyan stressed that the Armenian military remains the principal and most stable element of the country’s security architecture.
However, given current realities, he believes Armenia’s armed forces cannot at this stage guarantee the country’s security entirely on their own.
For this reason, Armenia needs a multilayered deterrence system, with AI infrastructure potentially becoming one of its components.
AI and Armenia’s Negotiating Leverage
Petrosyan believes the growing attention given to artificial intelligence itself demonstrates the sector’s strategic importance.
If such infrastructure did not strengthen Armenia’s sovereignty, its regional role and consequently its ability to negotiate with different partners, he argued, it would not attract such significant attention.
Petrosyan also links this process to Armenia’s broader foreign policy diversification and its efforts to develop new partnerships and markets.
According to him, these investments are coming primarily from Western partners, while their expansion became possible alongside the deepening of Armenia’s relations with the West.