This thesis examines U.S. strategic approaches to Ukraine in three major periods: World War I; World War II and the Cold War; and since Ukraine's independence in 1991. Several key factors and tendencies related to U.S.- Ukrainian-Russian relations are reviewed throughout these three periods. The main emphasis is on post-1991 American strategic approaches to Ukraine. The thesis attempts to define possible future U.S. approaches regarding Ukraine and possible challenges in the bilateral relationship. It concludes that the strategic partnership that the United States and Ukraine reached in the 199Os, after almost a century of American indifference toward Kyiv, is in decline because American strategic approaches toward Ukraine lack a properly balanced economic dimension. Moreover, changes in Russia's leadership, the U.S.-Russian arms control agenda, and U.S. foreign aid trends as well as negative internal political and economic factors in Ukraine are combining to lower Kyiv's place among the priorities of U.S. strategic policy. However, new business and economic initiatives, analogous to NATO's Partnership for Peace, could provide solutions.