American journalist Joshua Kucera, in his article about Cornell's 2010 book Azerbaijan Since Independence, thinks that "Cornell is generally pretty pro-Azerbaijan, and his framing of the situation as something inevitable seems to absolve Azerbaijan of any responsibility for its actions, which I think one could quibble with. But he knows Azerbaijan well, and this is an analysis worth considering."[13] In 2016, Cornell told a conference that "I notice that the Washington Post has published nine editorials on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan in the past two years. I haven’t seen that about Saudi Arabia, about Vietnam, about Turkmenistan, about many other countries Azerbaijan looks pretty good in comparison to... The more we focus only on human rights, the less we will achieve."[14]
 
Svante Cornell’s Institute for Security & Development Policy has been financed by the main lobbyist organization of official Baku - the European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS). [15] TEAS has long been in the center of attention of human rights watchdogs that closely observe the efforts of official Azerbaijan to infiltrate into the ranks of European politicians and representatives of academia and promote the stance of Aliyev regime. [16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Cornell