RADFORD -- Belarus is still forming its national identity, says Radford University geography professor Grigory Ioffe in his latest book, Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign Policy Misses the Mark.

Ioffe, a native of Moscow, draws upon his experiences and numerous research journeys to his home country and to Belarus to deliver a comprehensive and detailed account of how Belarusians are struggling to form a national identity separate from Russia while battling stern disapproval of their government by the West, particularly by the U.S.

Belarus often is referred to as the last dictatorship in Europe, and Ioffe says in his book that that description is a political cliché and that Belarus and its president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, are products of the country's world view, most importantly its delayed nation-building. Belarus, a country of nearly 10 million people, is described in the CIA World Fact Book as "republic in name, although in fact a dictatorship."

"The ambivalent relationship between Belarus and Russia results in an identity crisis that is not understood by the American foreign policy establishment," Ioffe said. "Western policies toward Belarus are based on the fallacy of geopolitical thinking. There is no doubt that Belarusian government deviates from the standards and norms of Western-style democracy. However, no fewer than 100 members of the United Nations deserve censure on account of their domestic policies that deviate from those same standards no less and quite often more than Belarus. The real problem with Belarus is that it has stubbornly resisted geopolitical reorientation. And one of the reasons behind that resistance has been that many Belarusians are not yet certain as to what sets them apart from Russians." 

In Understanding Belarus, Ioffe's ninth book and fourth in English, the author also explores the current linguistic situation in Belarus, where a majority of the natives speak Russian, not Belarusian.

Ioffe is a specialist in human geography and an expert on Belarus. He has written and lectured extensively about the former Soviet republic.

In September, Ioffe spoke about the new social landscape of the eastern European country at a conference organized by the Belarus Institute for Strategic Studies. The conference, "Toward the New Vision of Belarus," was held in Kiev, Ukraine.

Ioffe has spoken at two other events in the past year in which Belarus was the topic. In April, he participated in a conference at the U.S. State Department which was organized to assess Belarus a year after its presidential election. In 2006, Ioffe spoke about Belarus at a conference in Warsaw, Poland.

Previously, Ioffe acted as an examiner for a Ph.D. candidate at London's University of Kingston who was defending a thesis about Belarus. Ioffe worked with an internal examiner from the university to critique the student's thesis.

Ioffe's grandparents and mother were natives of Belarus, and he has visited the country numerous times.

Ioffe has served as an RU professor since 1990 and holds degrees from Moscow State University.