By Aleksandr Gevorkian
NEW YORK, NY: On October 21, the Institute for International Communication in cooperation with The Center for Global Business Stewardship at St. John’s University hosted an academic-civic discussion roundtable entitled The Crisis in The Caucasus. The conversation specifically addressed the ongoing month-old war in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) and the humanitarian crisis unravelling from those atrocities. Open to the public the virtual roundtable, moderated by Isabel Arustamyan (2nd year law student at St. John’s Law School), drew from the expertise of three invited panelists.
Dr. Artyom Tonoyan (Research Associate at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies) started the panel with providing a thorough historical overview of the current context and the plight of the Artsakh Armenians since the 1920s Soviet government’s decision to include the republic with its over 90% ethnic Armenian inhabitants as part of a newly formed republic of Azerbaijan. He emphasized that the details of that decision were still unclear to the historians, though speculations are abounding.
Answering a question on the religious component of the current war, the second panelist, Dr. Mark Movsesian (Frederick A. Whitney Professor & Co-Director, Center for Law & Religion, St. John’s Law School) stressed that while religion has played a role historically (Armenian church is one of the oldest in the world, adopting Christianity in 301AD several years before Rome’s conversion, while Azerbaijani are predominantly Muslim) and that there are attempts to present the current war from a religious perspective, there is much more at stake. Specifically, he emphasized the political element in the current war stemming from deep-rooted antagonisms, declining oil-based economy, and the threat of terrorist mercenaries employed by Azerbaijan as confirmed by the international media and the intelligence services of several governments (including France, Russia, and the U.S.).
Following up to the earlier points, Dr. Siobhan Nash-Marshall (Mary T. Clark Chair of Christian Philosophy, Manhattanville College) addressed the patterns of continuity from the Armenian Genocide of 1915 up to this war. As a philosopher and genocide scholar, Dr. Nash-Marshall emphasized the parallels between the present war and events of the early twentieth century in the same region. She touched on grand imperial designs of the last century that seem to be motivating the current attack on the Armenian population in Artsakh. She expressed hope that an average person learning about the tragedy in Armenia will be motivated to join the humanitarian call to end the atrocities and resolve matters peacefully.
The event drew strong participation from St. John’s community and general public and concluded with an engaging questions and answers session.
This week, a team of St. John’s students is participating in the ICSB Academy Pitch Competition in Taiwan. As they compete and learn, we reflect back on how last year’s competition in Argentina affected students’ who went on this special trip. Helene Diyabanza Peterson, who recently graduated from the College of Professional Studies, as Master of Science in International Communication, looks back at her experience in Buenos Aires:
The Institute for International Communication invited distinguished Soviet dissident and journalist, Prof. Leonid Goldin to speak at IICM on Monday April 9th. The purpose of the seminar, ostensibly about Russian propaganda, was to contextualize for students the methods and underlying models of power practiced by contemporary Russian media. 
The 
Friday, February 2, around 9:15 am: still feeling a little sleepy, I was looking out a glass wall over Manhattan, being illuminated by the morning sun from a seventeenth floor in a building next to Times Square. An inspiring and formative day was ahead of me – Kota Day 2018. 
On December 13, 2017, graduate students of International Communication at St. John’s University presented a variety of innovative projects they developed throughout a class in Design Thinking at a Graduate Symposium. The event was organized and moderated by Dr. Minna Horowitz, who led the Design Thinking class during this fall semester. 
Written by 
