The Polish Armed Forces are an instrument of the Polish foreign policy. In the years 1992–1999, their expeditionary activity would pave the way for Poland’s NATO membership. After 1999, it was an instrument to push through the second wave of NATO enlargement, and a tool to build up close relations with the US and the partners in the region. The similar attempt to boost Poland’s political position within the EU failed. In the years 2008–2015, the deterrence by punishment system, based on an enhanced forward presence, was built up at the eastern NATO flank. The experience of the genocidal Russian war in Ukraine creates, however, the necessity to change the system into one based on forward defence and deterrence by denial, which creates some new scenarios for expeditionary missions in the region.