Over the last couple of weeks thousands of people have taken to the streets in Belarus to protest the recent reelection of President Lukishenko. Lukisheko’s government stated that he won with over 80% of the vote, leading many to believe that this election was rigged and the results were fradulant. Today we explore the root of these protests and how Belarusians’ call for democracy will impact the countries relationship with the EU, the US, Russia, and neighboring states. How has Lukishenko maintained power? And what does the future of Belarus look like? To answer these questions and many more, we are joined today by Dr. Dalibor Rohac.
Dalibor Rohac is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies European political and economic trends. Specifically, he is working on Central and Eastern Europe, the European Union (EU) and the eurozone, US-EU relations, and the post-Communist transitions and backsliding of countries in the former Soviet bloc. He is concurrently a visiting junior fellow at the Max Beloff Centre for the Study of Liberty at the University of Buckingham in the UK and a fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.
Before joining AEI, Rohac was affiliated with the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, the London-based Legatum Institute, and the Center for the New Europe in Brussels. He has also worked in the office of the president of the Czech Republic in Prague.
Rohac’s analyses and commentary have been published widely in the media, including in the Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal Europe. His scholarly articles have been featured in professional journals, among them Constitutional Political Economy, Economic Affairs, and the European Journal for the History of Economic Thought.
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