Reinforcing the National Identity: Belarusian Identity-Building Social Practices

Journal on Baltic Security

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Piotr Piss

Pub. online: 1 Jun 2018 Type: Editorial

Open Access

Journal: Journal on Baltic Security Volume 4, Issue 1 (2018), pp. 39–54

Abstract

Belarus is often considered as ‘the last authoritarian state in Europe’ or the ‘last Soviet Republic’.

Belarusian policies are not a popular research topic. Over the past years, the country has made headlines

mostly as a regime violating human rights. Since the Russian aggression on Ukraine, Belarus has been

getting renewed attention. Minsk was the scene of a series of talks that aim at stopping the ongoing war in

Ukraine. Western media, scholars and society got a reminder that Eastern Europe was not a conflict-free

zone. This article puts military security policy of Belarus into perspective by showing that Belarus ‘per se’

is not a threat for neighboring countries; Belarus dependency towards Russia is huge; thus, Minsk has a

small capability to run its own independent security policy; military potential of Belarus is significant in

the region, but gap in equipment and training between NATO and Belarus is really more; it is in the interest

of Western countries to keep the Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus.

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