An Authoritarian Spectacle. Visual biopolitics and the Dramaturgy of the Poland-Belarus Border Migration Crisis

The study analyzes the 2021-2022 migration crisis at the EU-Belarus border through the conceptual lens of visual biopolitics. Based on data available from regime-run media in Belarus it demonstrates how the engineered crisis was a case of authoritarian dramaturgy relying on numerous visual representations of migrants. The carefully staged authoritarian spectacle exploits both the vulnerability and grievability of refugee life and the regime’s role as a self-appointed sovereign exercising comprehensive biopolitical care and protection over the population of migrants stranded at the border between Belarus and Poland.

Bio: Dr. Aliaksei Kazharski is a Researcher in Charles University. His research interests have included Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, regionalism, identity in international relations, critical approaches to security and terrorism studies. He is the author of two monographs: “Eurasian Integration and the Russian World. Regionalism as an Identitary Enterprise” (CEUPress, 2019) and “Central Europe Thirty Years after the Fall of Communism. A Return to the Margin?” (Rowman&Littlefield, 2022), winner of the International Studies Association, Global International Relations Section 2022-2023 Book Award.