Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign Policy Misses the Mark - by Grigory V Ioffe (Paperback)

About the Book

In this fascinating study of unfinished nation-building in Belarus, Grigory Ioffe draws on his two dozen research trips to the country to trace Belarus's history, geography, political situation, society, and economy. The ambivalent relationship between Russia and Belarus resul...

Book Synopsis

In this fascinating study of unfinished nation-building in Belarus, Grigory Ioffe draws on his two dozen research trips to the country to trace Belarus's history, geography, political situation, society, and economy. The ambivalent relationship between Russia and Belarus results in an identity crisis that is not understood by the West, which leads to Western policies toward Belarus that are based on a fallacy of geopolitical thinking. This book will lead readers to a deeper understanding of Belarus, its relationship with Russia, and its still-forming national identity.

Review Quotes

An important and timely book, articulating topical and emerging issues in Belarusian studies. . . . [Ioffe] takes a critical look at the established views on such issues as Belarusian identity, language use (Belarusian versus Russian), relations with Russia (unification versus independence), Aliaksandar Lukashenka as a political figure (the reasons behind his genuine popularity among his people and his rejection by the west, despite the west's acceptance of some much less democratic Central Asian leaders), the growth of the Belarusian economy . . . and, finally, the projections for the opposition. . . . [A] carefully researched and significant book that tries 'to understand Belarus on its own terms.'

Effortlessly captivates a much broader audience and essentially calls 'well-known truths' about the country into question. Understanding Belarus is a book about challenging facts, challenging qualifications and polemic conclusions, a book that touches one personally. . . . It craftily weaves together Belarus' complicated domestics with its foreign relations, in addition to critically assessing the logic of international society. . . . Ioffe successfully manages to turn Belarus' regime 'inside-out' to expose its sui generis logic of survival that responds to the often inflexible politics of great powers.

Grigory Ioffe is perhaps our most insightful analyst of contemporary Belarus, and this is a distinguished study that brings together the insights of first-hand experience and the wider concerns of social science. In particular, this is a study that allows him to explore at length the complex nature of the identity of a small European nation that has historically been torn between East and West. All who are interested in the future of European politics as well as the development of the former Soviet republics will want to read this rich and provocative analysis.

Grigory Ioffe set as his goal to create a 'less ideological and more open approach' to an understanding of the history, politics, social system, and economy of Belarus. He has succeeded in producing a persuasive alternative to the well-known earlier interpretations by Jan Zaprudnik and David Marples. Ioffe's main focus is on the search for Belarusian identity and an explanation of its peculiar relationship to Russia both historically and contemporaneously. Belarus remains for most of us dimly illuminated and something of an enigma. Good policy toward Belarus needs to be founded on a solid understanding, which Grigory Ioffe has provided in this very useful volume.

Grigory Ioffe's Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign Policy Misses the Mark is a profound, learned book that will force the reader to question the conventional dogmas about the meaning of democracy in post-Soviet space. Lucidly written, carefully researched, and extraordinarily insightful about the unique dynamics of emerging Belarusian nationalism, this book is a must-read for any scholar of Belarus or post-Soviet countries.

Grigory Ioffe's thorough and extremely insightful study . . . provides a balanced, well-structured and information introduction to the nature of nation-building and the political regime in contemporary Belarus.

The scholarly component in this volume is impressively high, making it perhaps the best study in English of a little-known and under-researched country. . . . [Ioffe] bears an immense knowledge of things Belarusian . . . [and] he sheds much needed light on the polity, economy, and society actually obtaining in [Belarus].

About the Author

Grigory Ioffe is professor of geography at Radford University.