Svante E. Cornell (born 1975) is a Swedish scholar specializing on politics and security issues in Eurasia, especially the South Caucasus, Turkey, and Central Asia.
He is the director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a joint center run by ISDP in collaboration with the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC).
[3] Cornell's doctoral thesis was entitled Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Cases in Georgia.
Dagens Nyheter also revealed that the Central 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".
"[2] Ami Hedenborg, a spokesperson for Amnesty 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.
"[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".