Svante E. Cornell (born 1975) is aSwedish scholar specializing on politics and security issues inEurasia, especially theSouth Caucasus,Turkey, andCentral Asia. He is a director and co-founder of theStockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), and Research Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (CACI), and joined theAmerican Foreign Policy Council as a Senior Fellow for Eurasia in January 2017.
Cornell has often been criticized for promoting "a stridently pro-Azerbaijani position" and for his personal ties with the Aliyev family in Azerbaijan.[1][2][3] The IDSP is sponsored by theEuropean Azerbaijan Society, which engages incaviar diplomacy on behalf of Azerbaijan, and CACI is owned by the Azerbaijani governmental think tank Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan (SAM), whose official purpose is to "create and maintain a positive image of the Republic of Azerbaijan abroad".[1]
Cornell studied at the Department of the International Relations,Middle East Technical University,Ankara,Turkey.[4] He earned a Ph.D. inPeace and Conflict Studies fromUppsala University inUppsala,Sweden.[4]
In 2000, Cornell participated in anAzerbaijani state funded project for an oil pipeline from Azerbaijan toTurkey, in which he and other participants traveled between both countries. Cornell's motorcycle was sponsored byAzercell, the Azerbaijani state-owned telecommunications company.[2][3][5] During the trip, Cornell and the other participants met with Azerbaijani presidentHeydar Aliyev,[2] who called them "great politicians".[3]
Cornell is a co-founder and director of the Institute for Security and Development Policy. He is the director of theCentral Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a joint center run by ISDP in collaboration with theAmerican Foreign Policy Council (AFPC). Cornell is also a Senior Fellow for Eurasia at AFPC. He is also the editor in Chief of the Joint Center's biweekly publications, Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst and Turkey Analyst.[6]
In 2000 Cornell took part in the Baku-Ceyhan oil odyssey, a project dedicated at bringing the first barrel ofAzerbaijan oil to theTurkey port ofCeyhan with Ural sidecar bikes.[7]
From 2002 to 2003 served as the course Chair of the Caucasus Area Studies at theForeign Service Institute of theU.S. Department of State.[4]
Cornell frequently worked with lobbyists representing Azerbaijan fromPodesta Group andDCI Group concerning Azerbaijani public relations and US-Azerbaijan relations.[3]
Cornell's doctoral thesis was entitledAutonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Cases in Georgia.
He is the author of a number of books, includingSmall Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus.
In 2009, together withS. Frederick Starr, he editedThe Guns of August 2008: Russia's War in Georgia, which addresses the causes and consequences of the2008 South Ossetia War; a reviewer noted that the book's "strong pro-Georgian bias often undermines the quality of its scholarship, at times blurring the line between fact and fiction".[8]
Cornell'sop-eds and commentary have appeared in theJerusalem Post,Le Monde,The New York Times,[9]The Guardian,[10] theInternational Herald Tribune,Le Figaro,[11]The Baltimore Sun,Dagens Nyheter, theMoscow Times,Turkish Daily News, theLos Angeles Times, andThe Washington Times. He also published a paper for NRB Analysis.[12]
A 2017 article by the Swedish newspaperDagens Nyheter uncovered that Cornell's ISDP institute is sponsored by the Azerbaijani lobbying organizationEuropean Azerbaijan Society, which engages incaviar diplomacy on behalf of Azerbaijan.Dagens Nyheter also revealed that theCentral Asia-Caucasus Institute think tank, on which Cornell is an advisory board member, is funded by the Azerbaijani governmental think tank Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan (SAM), whose official purpose is to "create and maintain a positive image of the Republic of Azerbaijan abroad".[1]
Swedish Member of ParliamentFredrik Malm criticized Cornell for his connections with the Azerbaijani presidentIlham Aliyev: "There may be reasons to have contacts with dictatorships, but there is a difference between having contacts and systematically confirming a dictatorship, and even praising the dictator. Svante Cornell's demarcation is diffuse to say the least. In my eyes, he appears to be an accomplice, much like those ones we saw during the Cold War who defended the Soviet Union."[2]
Ami Hedenborg, a spokesperson forAmnesty International Sweden, similarly criticized Cornell's relationship with the Azerbaijani leadership: "Azerbaijan is a country that grossly violates human rights, and if you sit as a Swedish researcher on a council funded by the regime, which is supposed to convey a positive image of the country, it is very worrying. You have to ask yourself: in whose interest am I sitting here and what am I conveying? What needs to be conveyed are the serious violations of human rights that are taking place."[1]
Journalist Lillian Avedian described Cornell as part of a group of scholars from American universities who "built a successful career writing about Azerbaijan’s politics while cultivating a relationship with its government".[3]
Cornell has received an honorary doctorate from theNational Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan.[13]
