Format: moderated discussion

Working language: English

Organisers: Minsk Dialogue Track-II Initiative (Belarus), the Jamestown Foundation (USA), and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany)

U.S.-Belarus relations do not exist in a geopolitical vacuum. To a large degree, they are shaped by growing tensions between Russia and the West. Belarus, which is geographically sandwiched between the geopolitical rivals, faces enormous strategic uncertainties and finds it increasingly difficult to muddle through the environment of deteriorating international security. Most recently, “Fort Trump” and the newly declared principles of U.S. policy in Eastern Europe have posed new questions and challenges for Belarus’s foreign policy puzzle and, respectively, for its relations with Washington.

This Minsk Dialogue briefing will offer the American perspective on the current state and prospects of U.S.-Belarus relations amid growing regional tensions.

Speakers

Lt. Gen (Ret.) Frederick Benjamin Hodges

Commander, U.S. Army Europe (2014-2017)

Michael Carpenter

Senior Director, Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement; nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Director for Russia at the US National Security Council

With contributions from other members of the Jamestown Foundation delegation.

Moderator

Yauheni Preiherman

Head, Minsk Dialogue Track-II Initiative