Despite the obvious advantages of democratic governance and market economy, in the modern world a noticeable consolidation of authoritarian regimes can be observed, which is aimed primarily at preserving personalist models of power. The coexistence of democratic and authoritarian states is the most important challenge for ensuring global and regional security. The main reason for international tension at the present stage is that authoritarian regimes are by their nature aggressive both in domestic and foreign policy. Practice shows that undemocratic governments try to justify their systemic mistakes and miscalculations to the population by using an external threat.
The topic of the publication is the demonstration of the aggressive nature of the Belarusian dictatorship and assessment of its hostile actions against neighboring democratic states. The study also pays close attention to the analysis of the effectiveness of democratic policies in countering military and hybrid attacks by non‑ democratic countries.
The article examines with specific examples the hybrid threats that the Belarusian dictatorship uses: encouragement of illegal migration, propaganda and disinformation, attempts to undermine stability and cause panic in a neighboring country through subversive operations, and creation of environmental problems and others.
The authors also assess the attempts of democratic countries to counter the aggressive actions of authoritarian neighbors. They consider the measures taken by democratic countries to counter the aggressive actions to be clearly insufficient and often ineffective. The main reason for this is the lack of a collective strategy and the implementation of an active and coordinated policy. The collective strategy, according to the authors, could include various measures, first of all a limitation of the international legal personality of regimes that violate international law and domestic legislation and also punishing criminals who commit crimes against humanity.
The coexistence of democratic and authoritarian states is a reality of the modern world. The main thing is that this coexistence is as peaceful and constructive as possible. This is not achieved automatically, but requires constant active actions by the international community