Central European Direction of U.S. Foreign Policy: from Velvet Revolutions to Ukrainian Crisis

The article analyses the historical and political development of Central Europe since the Velvet Revolutions of the late 1980s to the present day. The study demonstrated that after the collapse of the socialist regimes, Washington began to pay close attention to the space that found itself in a political vacuum after the collapse of the USSR. After the Central European countries found themselves in the Euro-Atlantic community, Washington's attention to the region decreased. However, the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014 marked a turn in the perception of this space, reviving historical concepts that considered this territory as a “sanitary corridor”, “buffer zone”, “outpost of the West”, etc. Until 2022, the place of Central Europe in American foreign policy was unstable and depended on the presidential administration in the White House. The beginning of the Special military operation in Ukraine significantly increased the political role of the Central European countries in the US European strategy. The latter implemented several directions of their foreign policy, receiving unconditional support from local politicians. Firstly, the United States received a new tool for promoting its own interests at the EU level. Secondly, the Americans managed to strengthen the position of domestic energy companies, using the rhetoric of the Central Europeans about a complete rejection of trade and economic cooperation with Russia. Third, the countries of Central Europe began to be officially perceived as a region deterring Russian and Chinese threats, which freed up American opportunities to work in other areas. The article notes that the Central European region, since its inception, has never been static and has changed under the influence of political processes.