Foreign policy positioning issue of small States (on the example of the Republic of Belarus relations with the Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China)

Abstract

Small states are very weak in the political area. That is why there is a need for them to
try to choose the various foreign policy strategies to defend themselves. Belarus is a small state
that needs to survive in our rapidly developing and politically unstable world. Having emerged as
a newly independent state as the result of the collapse of the USSR, Belarus faced a difficult choice
in the decision where it was going to move further and on whom it could rely. In particular, in
recent years, Belarus needs to make a subtle strategic calculation as to how to manage its relations
with two important partners: Russia and China.
This article considers the theory of small states’ foreign policy strategies in detail. It analyzes
the choice of Belarus’s foreign policy strategies towards China and Russia. It shows that Belarus
combines some characteristics from the classic small states’ foreign policy strategies, and it does
not fully follow any of them.