The European Union’s Strategic Non-Engagement in Belarus Challenging the Hegemonic Notion of the EU as a Toothless Value Diffuser
The European Union’s Strategic Non-Engagement in Belarus Challenging the Hegemonic Notion of the EU as a Toothless Value Diffuser

Summary/Abstract: Beyond the European Union’s increasingly fortified eastern border lies the continent’s blind spot – Europe’s last dictatorship. The Republic of Belarus, which slid into authoritarian rule in the mid-1990s, is amongst the academically most underinvestigated states in contemporary Europe. This article will contribute to the thin body of literature on Belarus by exploring the policies of the European Union, the continent’s self-styled bringer of peace and prosperity, towards its unknown eastern neighbour. Within the existing literature on the EU’s policies towards Belarus, the article identifies a dominant narrative, which depicts the Union as a ‘toothless value diffuser’. This hegemonic notion shall be challenged and replaced by the concept of “strategic nonengagement”, which more adequately describes the EU’s approach vis-à-vis Minsk.

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