The world that created the transatlantic partnership is fading fast.¹ If the U.S.-European relationship is to be a progressive force in the world to come, Americans and Europeans must urgently build a more strategic partnership that is more effective in dealing with new partners and addressing transformations occurring all around them. It is a moment of opportunity -- to use or to lose.

There is much that is positive about this new world rising. For the first time in human history, most people on this planet live under governments of their own choosing. Revolutions in science, technology, transportation, and communications...

The United States is the most important partner for the European Union. The EU, in turn, is the most important organization in the world to which the United States does not belong. In terms of values and interests, economic interactions and human bonds, the EU and the U.S. are closer to one another than either is to any other major international actor. The U.S.-EU relationship is among the most complex and multi-layered economic, diplomatic, societal and security relationship that either partner has, especially if it is seen to encompass the relationships the U.S maintains with the EU’s 27 member states...

A strategic U.S.-EU partnership is urgent. Yet the relationship is burdened by a low political profile, the uneven nature of the EU as an actor, and the complex nature of our institutions. Our Ten Initiatives call for a new politics, not just a new process. But there are implications for process, which we outline here.

The first and most important step is to rebuild a sense of common cause -- to reconcile a new stage of European integration with a transformed transatlantic relationship that can promote the security, prosperity and freedom of our citizens in the new world rising. The...