The agency of smaller powers: Belarus in international relations
Journal: Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) (University of Oxford)
Year: 2017

Smaller powers wield agency in the international system and they do so in many cases independently of institutions. This is problematic not only from the perspective of realism, where 'might is right,' but also from the perspective of liberalism which argues that smaller powers use institutions to obtain policy objectives. This thesis considers this problem in respect of the new states that emerged from the former Soviet Union at the end of 1991, with particular focus on Belarus which is a least