That’s what Daniel Drezner is asking, and as easy as it is for us to discuss theory on these issues, it is much harder to put into practice. Personally, just looking at a map of the region, I take hope in that it is surrounded on three sides by now-free countries. When the time comes, I think Poland and Ukraine will play a big role in supporting “regime change” just as Poland aided its friends in Ukraine this time around.

In any case, he wants your own ideas on how it should be done. Leave some comments there if you have anything.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has a large article on Belarus’ prospects for democracy.

Other Lithuanian diplomats contend that it has been difficult (to put it diplomatically) to persuade European Union bureaucrats to play an active role in the former Soviet Union. They speculate that many EU higher-ups would have preferred Viktor Yanukovych, Mr. Yushchenko’s government-backed rival, to the new president: True, this would have left Ukrainians with a corrupt, oligarch-run regime, but it would have meant western Europeans didn’t have to worry about 50 million eastern Europeans clamoring to join the club.

Now that Belarus borders three EU countries — Lithuania, Latvia and Poland — Lithuanian officials say there is growing pressure within the organization to help the opposition. In March, for example, Vilnius will host a donors conference for the Belarussian opposition. But there remains deep-seated reluctance to getting too enmeshed in the Russian “near abroad.” And of those three new EU member-states, only Lithuania has aggressively worked to help the Belarussians. Polish officials have warned against alienating Mr. Lukashenko; the Latvians simply have less aid to give.

Perhaps the most hopeful sign is that the U.S. is paying greater attention to Belarus. Recently, the U.S. Congress passed the Belarus Democracy Act. There is talk that at least one senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee has promised the Congress will set aside more money this year for the opposition. And as anyone with a television set knows, Condoleezza Rice, in her secretary of state confirmation hearings, identified Belarus as one of six “outposts of tyranny.”

Read the entire thing, the WSJ is always thorough. A comment from Discoshaman more along my lines of thought:

A LOT of Belorussians came to support us in Independence Square. To the extent that they can get across the border, PORA and other democracy activists will undoubtedly return the favor when Lukashenko comes up for “re-election” in 2006. An orange Belarus seems like a longshot now, but it did for us too. Here’s hoping.

Eric Kuszewski from Roxborough’s Publius posts an article from Radio Free Europe detailing Lukashenko’s desire for international investment. From the article:

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said in an interview with Arkadii Mar, editor in chief of the New York-based Russian-language weekly “Russkaya Amerika,” that Belarus is open to foreign investment, Belarusian Television reported on 14 February. Lukashenka also expressed the government’s readiness to sell land to investors for the construction of factories. “In any part of the country we cannot only give an investor the right to build Äa plantÅ but also sell him the land,” Lukashenka said. “But preferably for ÄintroducingÅ new production capacities.” Belarusian Television noted that readers of “Russkaya Amerika,” jointly with the New York-based radio station Nash Golos (Our Voice), have declared Lukashenka the best politician of 2004.

I take Eric’s view on this:

One problem there, bud. Who’s gonna trust you not to regulate and/or tax them into the ground, nevermind the very real possibility you would nationalize them on a whim.

Sorry, my friend, you just haven’t made yourself an attractive option for investors. I have a feeling the foreign investment in the region is gonna be on the other side of your southern and western borders.

You made your bed, now your people are going to lie in it as the neighbors pass you by. Damn shame, really.