Anatomy of a War: An American General Breaks Down the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War

Many Armenians today are, without a doubt, still reeling from and trying to make sense of the latest developments in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). While many are concerned with the political ramifications following the formal end of hostilities, what of the war itself, namely, its military aspects and implications?

Armen speaks with former two-star general Mark MacCarley, US Army ret., who first visited Nagorno-Karabakh in April 2016 during the Four-Day War. MacCarley draws on his extensive military experience to provide a preliminary assessment of the 44-Day War and evaluate the respective combat capabilities and performances of the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. It’s a sobering conversation that confronts a number of hard truths and realities – about Azerbaijan's relentless, yet adept, rearming over the last 30 years with the latest Turkish and Israeli UAV and missile technology, the shortcomings of the Soviet-era organization of the Armenian armed forces, their outdated tactics and perhaps ill-fated reliance on static warfare, and their overall struggle to anticipate the 21st-century fighting and combat.

MacCarley is a graduate of the United States Army War College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania and holds degrees in both business (University of Massachusetts at Amherst) and law (Loyola Law School). An attorney with a practice based in Los Angeles, until most recently he was the deputy chief of staff of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, headquartered at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

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