Senior Research Fellow. Benyamin was Vice President for Research–Head of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense Research University (NDRU) in Armenia from August 2016 to February 2019. He joined the INSS (the predecessor of the NDRU) in March 2009 as a Research Fellow and was appointed as its Deputy Director for Research in November 2010. 

In 2013 Benyamin was a Distinguished Research Fellow at the US National Defense University College of International Security Affairs. A graduate of the US State Department “Study of the US Institutes for Scholars 2012 Program” on US National Security Policy-Making, he holds a PhD in History and took the 2006 Tavitian Program on International Relations at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

He is the author of more than 250 academic papers and op-eds published in leading Armenian and international journals and media platforms. 

Field of expertise: Armenia–Azerbaijan relations and negotiation process, geopolitics of the South Caucasus, diversification of Armenia’s foreign policy.