Belarusian opposition in exile. Influence of the Western recognition

Research Area 1, “Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices”.

Ekaterina Pierson-Lyzhina is a researcher in international relations. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Université libre de Bruxelles (2020), where she has been teaching several seminars in political science and two courses (“EU Eastern Neighborhood” and “Introduction to Political Science”) as a substitute professor. Her current research focuses on different aspect of Western recognition of foreign opposition groups (on their alliance-building, violent resistance strategies, relationship with host/sponsor states). In 2022-23, she was part of the BIELEXIL project ‘Les exilés biélorusses en Europe centrale et orientale’, carried by Cefres, Prague and financed by Institut Convergences Migrations, France.

CV

Education

2020: PhD in Political Science, Université libre de Bruxelles, Thesis (in French): “Belarusian foreign policy towards the EU (1994 – 2020): oscillations of a multi-vector diplomacy” (under direction of Aude Merlin)

Earlier, I obtained my bachelor’s degree in international relations from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia and my master’s degree in political science from the Université libre de Bruxelles.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Belarus’s oscillating foreign policy towards the EU: from engagement to retrenchment (1994-2021),” Canadian Slavonic Papers 63(3-4), 2021, pp. 338-57.

“Actors of Belarusian ‘Multivector’ Foreign Policy towards the EU in the 2010s,” The Journal of Belarusian Studies 11(1), 2021, pp. 56-86.

Think-tank contributions

Research on sustainable development in Eastern Partnership for the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum:

Eastern Partnership Index 2022-23 (under review).

Eastern Partnership Index 2020-21. Charting Performance in the Eastern Partnership: Democracy and Good Governance, Policy Convergence and Sustainable Development, https://eap-csf.eu/wp-content/uploads/EaP-Index-2020-2021.pdf

Research in 2020-2021 on political effects of Covid-19 in the former USSR for The Eurasian States in Transition Research Center (EAST Center), Poland:

“‘Vaccine diplomacy’ targeted at Eastern Partnership countries”, 1 June 2021, pp. 1-8. https://east-center.org/vaccine-diplomacy-targeted-at-eastern-partnership-countries/

with Kovalenko, O., Saralidze, L., “Government communication and public resilience to propaganda during COVID-19 in Belarus, Georgia, and Ukraine”, 25 Jan. 2021, pp. 1-23.

Government communication and public resilience to propaganda during COVID-19 in Belarus, Georgia, and Ukraine

with Kovalenko, O., “The coronavirus outbreak in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine: Responses by the state, business and civil society”, 28 Oct. 2020. https://east-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-coronavirus-outbreak-BLR-RU-UKR.pdf