The United States remains the only existing superpower, despite the last three decades having seen a steady rise in the global political and economic significance of some other countries (mainly the BRICS group, China in particular). This March, when after a gap of almost nine years Polish people were questioned about how they see the influence of the US on the world, the answers showed that current attitudes are at their most positive since 2006. May 2014 had already seen a reversal of the earlier growth trend in equivocal responses linking perceptions of the political role of this superpower to specific situations. This 2014 change of heart was in all likelihood connected to the USA’s clear position at that time in regard to Ukraine and Russia’s engagement there. Attitudes in this respect are even more positive now, as shown by the current survey. Compared to earlier studies, there has been a significant rise in Polish people believing that, on the whole, the United States exerts a positive influence on the world; this is the opinion held by over a half of all respondents at present. Such a positive attitude to the United States can, in all certainty, be linked to the response of the superpower to Russia’s armed aggression in Ukraine.

More on this subject in the CBOS report.