Community Resilience in Belarus and the EU response

Abstract

The search for a 'better lens' is exactly what is needed anywhere where polities … and societies are democratically challenged (Sadiki, 2015, p. 709).

Power, People, and the Political: Understanding the Many Crises in Belarus

“…Furthermore, these theories, as a rule, have a built-in implicit normative bias defining an end-point to be reached, with an expectation that liberal democracy associated with a range of political institutions and practices will prevail (Norris 2002). However, we argue here and elsewhere (Korosteleva and Flockhart 2020; Korosteleva and Petrova 2021; Korosteleva and Petrova 2022; Korosteleva, Petrova, and Kudlenko 2022 forthcoming) that living in an increasingly vulnerable, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous world, known as a VUCA-world (Burrows and Gnad 2017), our knowledge and ability to plan and reach intended outcomes are fundamentally limited, especially when underpinned by linear, closed-system thinking. With this in mind, this article aims to offer an alternative approach to the analysis of the many crises in Belarus by drawing on the insights of complexity-thinking (Kavalski 2016) and relationality (Kurki 2020).…”

“…Elsewhere (Korosteleva 2021; Petrova 2021), we contend that what we observe in Belarus today is the formation and the rise of Belarusian peoplehood , facilitated in response to the many crises and the political, especially, with the violent crackdown of freedom by the regime. From a complexity perspective it originally emerged through a relational mesh of self-organization and support infrastructures to combat COVID-19 pandemic from the bottom-up in the absence of the state response.…”

“…Following from the above, we argue that complexity may not only be “a better lens” … needed [to explain] polities … and societies [that] are democratically challenged” (Sadiki 2016, 709; Korosteleva and 2021); it is also more ambitious and encompassing in capturing community’s hidden relations and “right to opacity” in responding to change (Glissant, in Chandler 2021). With this in mind we examine Belarus as a social domain where self-organization takes place in response to adversity and crisis, as a configuration of three constitutive elements, outlined above: power, people and the political, to understand the nature of the crises in Belarus from a complexity-thinking perspective.…”

Evolution Of The Eastern Partnership Project: Strategic Use Of “Soft Power” Of The European Union Against Russia

“…В 2021 г., в период оценки убытков от пандемии COVID-19 в 2020 г., Верховный представитель Союза по иностранным делам и политике безопасности Жозеп Боррель объявил об инвестиционной помощи восточными соседям в размере 2,3 млрд евро и подчеркнул, что «Восточное партнерство продолжает занимать высокие позиции в общей повестке ЕС» и что основу работы ЕС с Партнерством составляет «продвижение демократии, успешных практик управления и верховенства права, в том числе и в Республике Беларусь, где мы будем поддерживать население через наш формат взаимодействия» 31 . Так, ЕС отреагировал на «кризисные ситуации», отраженные в его договоренностях со странами Партнерства, которыми можно назвать пандемию с большими экономическими потерями для многих государств и предприятий, а также протесты в Республике Беларусь из-за выборов президента, вследствие которых ЕС резко осудил «жестокость» белорусских спецслужб и поддержал оппозиционную кандидатку С. Тихановскую 32 .…”

A Year like no Other: Hope out of Despair?

“…Also focused on the neighbourhood, Korosteleva and Petrova (2021) look at the EU's response to the emergence of organized social movements in Belarus. This crisis in the neighbourhood raises important questions about the EU's commitment to its own core values and its relationship with fragile environments.…”