THE AMERICAN MILITARY MISSION AND ARMENIA: JAMES HARBORD’S REPORT IN THE CONTEXT OF US MANDATE POLICY AND ARMENIAN–AMERICAN RELATIONS (1919–1920)

ALIK A. GHARIBYAN; VAHRAM V. PETROSYAN; VOLODYA A. GASPARYAN; ALVINA S. AGHABABYAN; RUZANNA E. GASPARYAN

doi:10.19090/i.2025.36.99-118

Authors

ALIK A. GHARIBYAN Yerevan State University, Institute for Armenian Studies
VAHRAM V. PETROSYAN Yerevan State University, Institute for Armenian Studies
VOLODYA A. GASPARYAN Yerevan State University, Institute for Armenian Studies
ALVINA S. AGHABABYAN Yerevan State University, Institute for Armenian Studies
RUZANNA E. GASPARYAN Yerevan State University, Institute for Armenian Studies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19090/i.2025.36.99-118

Keywords:

US foreign policy, First World War, James G. Harbord, Armenia, mandate, Woodrow Wilson, Senate

Abstract

The present study lies at the intersection of history and other humanities, focusing on Armenian history and the US foreign policy–the position of the US in the region at the close of the First World War, the activities it carried out, and the corpus of information it assembled concerning Armenia and the Armenian people during the pivotal years of 1919 and 1920. Particular attention is devoted to President Woodrow Wilson’s Armenian policy in the matter of an American mandate in order to investigate and elucidate the aims of the American mission dispatched to Armenia, and the circumstances under which the US undertook the commitment to determine Armenia’s borders. Major General James G. Harbord’s mission report is used as a seminal primary source for the historiography of Armenian-American relations, the mandate issue, the Armenian Genocide, and the diplomatic history of boundary delimitation.

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