The Russian Federation and Belarus in the dispute with the west. A neoclassical realist paradigm perspective

Abstract

The contemporary international stage has undergone considerable changes/ developments in recent years, with emphasis on the tensions between actors such as the Russian Federation and the West. This paper aims to analyse the Russian Federation’s foreign and security policy in the dispute with the West, highlighting the importance of Belarus in this script. By using a neoclassical realist framework that incorporates both systemic and intervening variables to explain foreign policy, I have been able to observe the evolution of the Russian Federation on the international stage after the end of the Cold War. The neoclassical realist ‟causal chain” showed us why a country like Russia decided to pursue specific objectives, on the international theatre.

Keywords

• The Russian Federation
• the EU
• the USA
• Belarus
• neoclassical realism
• foreign policy