National Interest. Howst to make irreversible the independence

In the system of international affairs each country has its own interests and aims at achieving its goals. Generally, there are four major foreign policy goals: security; autonomy and sovereignty; economic growth and prosperity; status and prestige. The condition of the society, the balance of power between political and societal forces, as well as the preferences of the ruling group in the country may make vary the priority of these goals. Other factor that plays an important role in foreign-policy positioning of a country is the national consensus with regard to the content of national interests, the ways to pursue them and the possible threats to them.

Only 20 years ago under very tough circumstances our country adopted the Declaration of Independence. With time passed, it became evident that the independence of a post-imperial periphery heavily bounded to the former colonial centre is a constant challenge; a test of maturity and responsibility.

Those 20 years brought about to a significant evolution both of the ruling group and the society. When the independence was gained, there were very few people who had the courage and the ability to think in the categories of an independent state. Many could not even dare to reflect on and discuss the very question whether Belarus had any national interests.

However, today the term ‘national interest’ is used by almost every social and political actor in the country. The most significant verbal transformation affected the ruling groups. Now they claim in unison that only today’s ruler has the exclusive skill and capacity to defend the national interest.

Let’s go back to the four basic aims of state’s foreign policy and answer a structural question: can the existing dictatorial regime, which is strongly built around an extremely questionable person, guarantee the security and the sovereignty of the country, ensure the welfare and develop the opportunities for creative self-fulfilment of its citizens as well as significantly improve the country’s regional and global prestige?

The answer is evident—no. Any dictatorship disregards the society and manipulates it; it appeals to base feelings and uses every means to achieve its goals. The reason is that any dictatorship is based on a vicious self-delegation of the right to define the national interest and on a corrupt submission of the national interest to the interests of one’s own clannish group. Forcibly, by using the force and intimidation, it imposes itself on the society, having transformed elections into the means of a manipulative acclamation, not a democratic legitimisation of the authorities. It does whatever it can to turn a person into a dependent and passive consumer, not a responsible and informed citizen. It fears the society and doesn’t trust the people. To put it short, dictatorship leads to a dead end and degenerates.

Today it obvious that the authoritarian regime has failed to meet most challenges faced by our country at the beginning of the 1990-ies. In the end, the dictatorship, for many reasons, has been unable to get substantial advantage from the opportunities offered by the European integration in order to make irreversible the independence which has been and is dreamt of by responsible Belarusians.

Another level of analysis: the threats and opportunities while defending the national interest. In the light of the resent regular conflicts between the authoritarian Moscow’s and Minsk’s rulers, the attempt to be one-sidedly oriented at the only partner becomes more and more faulty and dangerous. A very important partner with which we should definitely build transparent and mutually beneficial relations. The partner, with which we deal in many issues and which has a huge impact on Belarus. But the partner, that still is not ready to treat us as a separate nation and that will hardly favour the emergence in Belarus of a state, economy and society functioning model that would be more democratic and fair than its own.

Yes, Russia is our necessary and inevitable partner when it comes to defending our national interests, but it cannot be the only one or the main one. And here it is, the European vector of the development — the basis of the Belarusian national interest, as only European integration will permit to modernise the country politically and economically, to revive the national, political and civic culture of people, to create a strong basis for a respectful dialogue with Russian interlocutors, and also to guarantee the existence of insurmountable barriers to populism from the side of another “jack-in-the-box” or an ultraliberal, ready to sell/give away/unite everyone and everything in order to quench their thirst for power or for implementation of their ephemeral concepts and schemes.

 

Alaksandr Łahvinieс

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