Lobbying is generally defined as the process of seeking to influence a government and its institutions to execute policies that serve interests of a group of individuals, says an article entitled ‘The Infuence Of Ethnic Lobbying On US Foreign Policy’ by Rafiga Gurbanzade, posted on Eurasia Review.

In the United States, the roots of ethnicity-based competition for political influence date back to the early 20th century “Currently, ethnic interest groups spend millions of dollars annually to influence U.S. foreign policy and to ‘block the influence of rival ethnic lobbies’” the author writes.

As stated in the Encyclopedia of Associations, in 2010 there were 24,000 registered organizations in the U.S., constituting a 64 per cent growth of lobbyist groups since 1980. According to the Foreign Affairs magazine among the strongest lobbies in the U.S. are those advocating the interests of Armenia, China, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

Among the various Jewish-American lobbying groups, the most known one is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC’s major achievement is the securing of a substantial U.S. economic and military assistance to Israel. For the past decade, Israel has been the largest per capita U.S. aid recipient (Ripley & Lindsay, 93-94). As stated in the Congressional Research Service, U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel, starting from 2007, the U.S. expanded the military aid by $150 million each year.

The two other powerful ethnic lobbies in the U.S. are those of Greek- and Armenian-Americans. Both groups seek to influence U.S. foreign policy in support of Greece and Armenia, respectively, and are united by their antagonistic agenda against the rival Turkey.
Armenian-American lobby in the U.S. builds upon a sizeable community that numbers over half a million in California alone. The largest grassroots organization, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), is a U. S. affiliate of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), a left-wing nationalist party that dominated Armenian politics since 1890 (CREW). The other Armenian-American lobbying group is the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA). Like the Jewish-American special interest, ANCA and AAA secured U.S. economic assistance to Armenia, making it the second largest per capita recipient of U.S. aid after Israel. The total amount of U.S. assistance to Armenia since 1992 topped $2 billion.

One of the factors by which the Armenian-American lobby’s agenda contradicts U.S. strategic interests is that, while Turkey is a NATO member and Azerbaijan is a more attractive economic and strategic partner, Armenia hosts the only remaining Russian military base in the South Caucasus and maintains close cooperation with Iran.

The strength of the Armenian and Greek interest groups is the result of the weakness of the Turkish and Azerbaijani lobbies in the past.