Kind words, Cruise Missiles, and everything in between

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After the Cold War, the United States aimed to maintain its status as the sole superpower, focusing on managing unipolarity. This Grand Strategy required the U.S. to tailor its approaches to different countries, resulting in varied relationships with Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. Poland was seen as “America’s best friend” by President George W. Bush, while Belarus sought distance from U.S. alignment, and Ukraine experienced fluctuating relations with Washington. These differing attitudes led to distinct policy responses from the U.S. Rather than a cohesive strategy for the region, the U.S. engaged in a series of bilateral relations with European states. Madeleine Albright described foreign policy tools as ranging from “kind words to cruise missiles.” This study provides a comparative analysis of how the U.S. employed these tools in its relations with Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus post-Cold War. As the last remaining superpower, the U.S. significantly influenced the development of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, yet its policies in this context have been underexplored. This work aims to address that gap by offering three detailed case studies.