Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign Policy Misses the Mark

Ioffe (geography, Radford U.) complains that most Western understandings of Belarus are characterized by a combination of ignorance and cliche (e.g. "an authoritarian cesspool," "a bastard of Europe," "an outpost of tyranny," and "the last dictatorship of Europe"). In order to correct that problem, he here offers a political and economic primer on Belarus that combines a human geographic perspective; personal observations from his own visits; theories of nation-building by the likes of Anthony David Smith, Ernest Gellner, and Miroslav Hroch; knowledge of local languages; and awareness of nation-building and political debates within Belarus itself. He addresses issues of language and ethnic identity, Belarus's standing on major economic and social indicators; the nature of Belarus's relationship with Russia, the nature and popularity of the Belarus political regime; and mass attitudes towards Belarusian statehood and economy. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Grigory Ioffe is professor of geography at Radford University.