We No Longer Only Carry Flowers”

Radicalization Processes Among the Belarusian Opposition-in-Exile

Bibliographic Data

ID12149596
AuthorsEkaterina Pierson-Lyzhina (0000-0002-4373-9214, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-03-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEast European Politics and Societies and Cultures (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0888-3254 • E-ISSN: 1533-8371
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/08883254251321177
OpenAlexW4408491200
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This article explores radicalization processes among the Belarusian opposition-in-exile using resource mobilization theory. Drawing on the case of the post-2020 opposition, exiled in the European Union and recognized by the West as a privileged interlocutor and “legitimate representative of the [Belarusian] people,” it identifies the stages of its radicalization in response to repression in Belarus and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine: first a peaceful approach, then emphasis on self-defense, and finally preparation for violent resistance. It explains each stage by the aggregation and maintenance of a “resource threshold.” It counts domestic/exile networks and Western allies as resources crucial for activism among the exiled opposition. The article also argues that different strategies (peaceful versus violent) have been useful for achieving the resource threshold of the Belarusian opposition-in-exile depending on the domestic, host states’, and sponsor states’ political and geopolitical environments

Carry (investment · Economics · Opposition (politics · Political science · Politics · Radicalization · Terrorism · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · European Politics and Security · History · Law · Finance

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