IGSD News

This forum critically reflects on the democracy support agenda and its future in light of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the decline of Western political and normative dominance, and overall global democratic backsliding. It finds that these wars appear systemic in the sense that they sharpen already existing crises in world order. They have evidenced a structural weakness in the international liberal order (ILO) and also intensified practices of competitive norms promotion at the global level, with Russian norms promotion in particular scoring some successes in South America, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. Taken together, these phenomena have allowed autocratic tendencies to gain strength globally, from the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia to Europe and the Americas. At the same time, democracy is also becoming more locally and regionally driven and diverse and might thus possibly become more resilient. In this new world in the making, Western democracy supporters will need to respect the unique historical and cultural contexts that have shaped democracies around the world and become more humble, inclusive, and dialogic with non-Western democratic middle powers such as South Africa and Brazil.

The WUB-hub project organised a book launch in London as part of the annual conference of Belarusian Studies in the XXI century. The book The Unbroken Generation: Youth Voices of Belarus 2020, a collection of student essays describing their experiences of being imprisoned during Belarus's political protests in 2020, was presented by Professor Elena Korosteleva, along with with Dr Paul Hanbury, Yahor Azarkevich and Ihar Ivanou, from Skaryna Press. The volume edited by Professors Victor Shadurski and Elena Korosteleva, was supported financially by the WUB-hub project, and was warmly received at the conference.

Details of the book can been found on the Skaryna Press website here. You can also download a free PDF version from the publisher's website.

Warwick Research Culture: Research Celebration 2025 – Congratulations to Professor Elena Korosteleva and Dr Paul Hansbury

Elena and Paul have been honoured with a “Highly Commended” award for establishing the Warwick Ukraine-Belarus Hub, which employs interdisciplinary insights to advance policy recommendations and support stakeholder interaction. Under Elena’s and Paul's leadership, the Hub has improved understanding of Belarus-Ukraine relations through higher-level webinars, targeted policy briefs, podcasts, film screenings and debates, and two international conferences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Whitehall. The WUB-hub also raised awareness and offered policy advice to the UK FCDO, the EU institutions (EEAS, EU Parliament and Commission), NATO PPD, and established collaborations towards the European Belarus Forum, and its key stakeholders.

Further details here: Warwick Research Celebration 2025 Winners

Professor Korosteleva was interviewed by the Monocle, one of the four selected academics at Warwick, to talk about their research to an audience of over 100,000 regular viewers. Professor Korosteleva was asked to comment about her research into multi-order world, that she undertakes under the AGMOW project with Prof. Trine Flockhart (EUI); and her work on security, democracy and resilience in Central Eurasia under the WUB-hub and SHAPEDEM-EU projects, including her forthcoming book 'Nurturing Resilience in Central Eurasia in an age of complexity' with Oxford University Press. The interview will be aired in early April.

Prof. Elena Korosteleva and Dr Paul Hansbury were invited to the reception organised by the FCDO in the Locarno Suite, for the experts and researchers supporting the FCDO activities. The reception was addressed by the Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, Stephen Doughty MP, who stressed the difficult geopolitical situation in the wider Europe, and the need for closer collaboration with academia and practitioners to address the challenges of peace and security in Ukraine especially.